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Big Brown Bear

Name: Big Brown Bear
Author: David McPhail
ISBN: 9780152048587

by David McPhail, John O'Connor

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Overview

Bear is very big, very brown, and very busy. His tree house could use a little sprucing up, so Bear heads up the ladder with a plan and a bucket of paint. But Little Bear has a plan, too—including a little mischief that brings Bear (and his blue paint tumbling down to earth. With gentle rhymes and humor, award-winning author and illustrator David McPhail creates a cheery and bumptious bear hug of a story.

A big brown bear turns blue while painting when a little bear playing with her baseball bat accidentally knocks him off his ladder.

Synopsis

Children's Literature

Watch the big brown bear as he tries to paint his tree house, when someone bumps into him and the paint spills. Then the big brown bear makes another attempt, this time using a new color. The words are whimsical and filled with rhyme. And the pictures by McPhail are amusing and adorable.

About the Author, David McPhail

DAVID McPHAIL is the creator of dozens of wonderful books, including Big Brown Bear's Up and Down Day; Sisters; Mole Music, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year; and several recent Green Light Readers for Harcourt. He lives in New Hampshire.

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Editorials

Children's Literature - Bonnie Bruneau

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-Two selections that are short, sweet, and delightful. The simple texts with repetitive phrases and picture clues are perfect for the youngest readers. Lascaro's colored-pencil and paper-collage illustrations in Down on the Farm are bright, bold, and thoughtfully placed on each double-page spread. An animal is shown on the left side of the page while a young girl imitates its action on the right side ("I see my duck swim. I can swim like my duck"). With a slightly longer rhyming text and the artist's familiar pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations, McPhail's humorous book is also right on target. Big Bear is brown but soon changes color as Little Bear accidentally knocks into his ladder while he is painting a tree house blue. After cleaning up, Big Bear returns with green paint and readers are left with a giggle as the next impending disaster is suggested. In both books, the illustrations fill the pages while the text is plain and clearly set in an appropriately large font on a white background. You can't go wrong with adding several copies of these terrific books to your beginning-to-read collection.-Gale W. Sherman, Pocatello Public Library, ID

Kirkus Reviews

Big Brown Bear, with a natty bowler hat, is all set to paint the house in this cheerful Level 1 reader. Every page presents a full-color scene and a few words of easily predicted, often rhyming text: "Bear is big. Bear is brown. Bear goes up. He comes down." Big Bear climbs a ladder with a pail of blue paint, while nearby, Little Bear plays with a ball and bat—"Oh no! Little Bear! Do not do that!" These are simple words, but sometimes challenging ones, e.g., there are two uses of up, as in climbing the ladder and washing up. The pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations provide nearly ideal context, while also amplifying the story. The format is attractive and practical, featuring large type on a white background that is placed for easy reading. Beginning readers will be amused by the gentle humor in the book, and feel accomplished to have tackled it themselves. (Picture book. 5-7) .