Around this time last year, I posted a bear storytime. October and November, with their falling leaves, first snows, and general chilliness, seem about the right time for those bears to crawl into their caves and hibernate. But before they do, I want to share a few new books I’ve added to my repertoire:
- Brown, Peter. Children Make Terrible Pets.
Can I keep him?
Lucy Bear finds a child spying on her as she twirls her way around the forest. She immediately takes “Squeaker,” as she names him, home and asks if she can keep him. Reluctantly, mom says yes, and Lucy and Squeaker become inseperable (new vocabulary word!) friends. Until Squeaker begins to prove why Lucy’s mom thinks that “children make terrible pets.” I adore the illustrations in this book, with muted colors and faux-wood grains. Plus, Squeaker really is darn cute.
- Wheeler, Lisa. Ugly Pie. This story, about a bear who sets out to find the ingredients to make an “ugly pie”, allows me to channel some of my relatives and sing/speak in a southern accent. For those of you who do crafts, perhaps you could give each child a circle of brown construction paper (the pie crust) and allow them to draw/paste pictures of food on the crust in order to invent their own ugly pies? (By the way, ugly pie isn’t particulary disgusting – it’s just not pretty.)
- Wright, Maureen. Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep. I first heard about this one thanks to a reader of this blog! Bear doesn’t hear very well, and when Old Man Winter tells him to “sleep, big bear, sleep”, he mistakenly thinks he’s supposed to drive a jeep, leap, dive deep, and do other curious things that rhyme with “sleep.”
- Wargin, Kathy-Jo. Scare A Bear. Do YOU know how to scare a bear? What if that bear wants to stay and swim? Join your campfire? Sleep overnight? How will you make him go?
Any new bear stories you’d put off hibernating for?
missmaryliberry.com 
Thanks for some new bear books to take a look at! One of my all time favorites wouldn’t “fit” with a fall theme but it’s a keeper anyway. “Little Bear’s Little Boat” by Bunting is one of those rare stories that understands a child’s world and point of view sooooo well.