Another book about bears by Laura and Philip Bunting
Omnibus Books, 2018. ISBN 9781742991931
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Themes: Bears. Humour. This
wonderfully entertaining book consists of a dialogue between the
writer and the bear, as the bear, realising that yet another book is
being written about his species, refuses to comply. 'After all says
the bear, there have been too many books about bears; bears are
grumpy, lazy and a bit ferocious, and would prefer to be doing
something else.' The bear walks off the page leaving the author to
come up with a variety of different storylines to entice the bear
back into the picture.
This very funny look at the role of bears in children's books, has
the bear offer many other suggestions of animals to appear in a
book. Each is considered but rejected: the dodo? too extinct, the
horse? neigh, marmosets? too crazy. The quirky suggestions will have
readers laughing out loud as they consider a picture book about the
animals offered. Once bear has gone through all the animals he can
think of, the author and the bear come to the conclusion that there
is no one better than a bear but the bear still refuses. But the
author has an idea!
This hilarious look at the number of bears in children's books will
have readers of all ages laughing uproariously as they too will
question the representation of bears in books, and try to imagine
books where other animals are used and laugh again at the idea
offered by the author at the end.
Philip Bunting's readily identified illustrative style will delight
readers. The bear stares out at the reader, sometimes with only the
slightest move of the eyeball or eyebrow to tell the audience how he
is feeling, but each time eliciting a laugh of recognition. The
husband and wife team has produced a classic tale of standing up for
yourself and of negotiating change to make this happen. The dialogue
is snappy and funny, the different speakers denoted by different
sized fonts, while other bears make their feelings heard with
banners and signs.
The bear with his mobile phone trying to elicit help from other
animals is a hoot, while the end papers with an array of sharks
underlines the predominance of bears in children's books (and not
sharks, or dodos, or echidnas).
I loved this book and can imagine lots of discussion with readers
going to their shelves or the library to see just how many books
there are about bears.
Fran Knight