The Bear in the Book
Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben
Andersen Press
We start with a familiar scenario – small boy ready for bed, chooses favourite book for his mother to read to him and snuggles close to her. The book is about a large black bear and immediately, the boy is immersed in the world of the bear as it beds down for the long winter sleep. “Shh,” he says almost feeling the snowflakes falling around the sleeping form. Staying quiet, the young listener watches the children and other animals in the winter landscape;

he sees too, the snowplough, somebody chopping firewood, crocuses starting to show through and finally as his own eyes close, the black bear emerging into the spring sunshine.
A gorgeous bedtime tale and one that highlights the power of a story and how children can become one with the world of a book. Young listeners and readers aloud will delight in the beautiful images both visual and verbal as they too become one with this story world.
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No Bears
Meg McKinlay and Leila Rudge
Walker Books pbk.
Meet Ruby, this is her book and, rest assured, “There are absolutely No BEARS in it.” Ruby should know, she’s in charge of it. Now Ruby has a great imagination, moreover she knows exactly what should be in a good story; it’s pretty things like princesses and castles and some exciting and scary things like monsters perhaps, but definitely NO BEARS. So are you ready for the bearless story? It’s in a special spiral bound volume and yes, there’s a princess living in a castle with her parents the King and Queen and her fairy godmother. There’s a is a deep dark forest and you’ve guessed, it – A MONSTER,  an evil one who wants to steal away the princess so she can read him bedtime stories every night. (almost excusable I suppose). And steal her he does. Somebody rescues her of course – with the wave of a magic wand … hmm.
“Wow! Says Ruby close to the end. ‘This has turned out to be a pretty good book, don’t you think?’ Well Ruby, actually I think that’s a huge understatement: It’s an absolutely brilliant one with its oh so cleverly constructed text and wonderfully whimsical pictures working in perfect harmony. Moreover it’s just perfect for inspiring children to create their own storybooks too – ABSOLUTELY NO BEARS of course!

In fact, whilst there are no bears in the story Ruby is telling, unbeknown to her but not to us, in the book we are reading, there is a bear who’s keeping a watchful eye on proceedings and acting as page-turner, props provider, scene changer and much more besides. And that’s not all; explore the illustrations further and all manner of other nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters make an appearance. That and the on-going visual joke are what make the book so irresistible and the ‘in the know’ audience squirm with delight.
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