Bear Hugs

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Affable ursine verses are accompanied by illustrations of endearing teddy bears. of all descriptions. Ages 4-7. (Sept.)

School Library Journal

PreS-- These brief poems celebrate the loving bonding of child and bear in small moments of contact, and there are no parents around to spoil it. While the toys and nursery furniture painted here recall an idealized childhood, the children themselves are your rumpled, garden-variety preschoolers. A stenciled border with hearts in each corner reinforces the nostalgic theme and holds everything together. Jane Yolen's The Three Bears Rhyme Book (HBJ, 1987), to which this is a natural companion, has more, more varied, and longer poems. However, never mind that kids are more likely to play with a teenaged mutant-something than a teddy these days or that libraries and stores are overflowing with these lovable totems of childhood. This is an attractively drawn, can't-miss addition to the bears' canon. --Anna Biagioni Hart, Sherwood Regional Library, Alexandria, VA