Old Bear teaches his fellow toys (and young readers, too) a worthy lesson about the benefits of teamwork. It’s an arts and crafts kind of day for the bear and his entourage as Old Bear’s painting of Little Bear inspires everyone to try his hand at the easel. The dilemma arises when there is only one picture frame remaining and the group refuses to paint together. Each toy decides to paint its own patterned picture. Hissey’s (Hoot, 1997, etc.) amiable crew has a marvelously messy time creating, with great sploshes and splashes of paint everywhere. Yet when the paintings turn out more erratic than intended, everyone seems destined for disappointment until Old Bear’s clever idea saves the day. A collage made from pieces of each painting creates a picture they can all admire. Hissey delivers her gentle moral in a manner easily accessible to preschooler readers, who observe that cooperation is often the key to splendid success. Her illustrations of the beloved stuffed animals are amazingly authentic; images layered upon each other add dimension to the pictures while the vivid hues capture little ones’ attention. Fans old and new will delight in the return of the pals. (Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-23709-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2001
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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