Bears Out There - Hardcover

Grade 1-3?Waking at daybreak, snug in his own bed, a young boy thinks to himself, "'There are bears out there.'" He can not see them, but he can feel them "Yawning and blinking and stretching" just like he is. In his imagination, their activities mirror his own. Both bears and boy stretch and grow. The same bright sun warms them as they lie down in the grass. In the evening, they watch the world turn cool and dark. In the quiet night sky, the same moon and stars light their way, and the youngster is glad in the knowledge that the animals are "out there." Soft, colored-pencil illustrations reflect the dreamlike, contemplative qualities of the story. The child, hanging from the rings of his swing-set, is superimposed on a forest setting where a bear is stretching to claw a tree. Such playful pairings underscore the feeling of connectedness in this lyrical daydream. An author's note adds factual information on bears. A subtle portrayal of the beauty and interrelatedness of all living things.?Lisa Wu Stowe, Great Neck Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5^-7. "There are bears out there. I can feel them." As twilight falls, a little boy imagines bears doing all the things that he does during a summer day--eating, resting in the warm sun, curling up to sleep. The colored-pencil pictures, in subtly rendered greens, golds, and browns, show what the boy is thinking and make the audience a part of the boy's intensely imagined world. The well-matched combination of artwork and text speaks to the value of all creatures and the things they have in common. Mary Harris Veeder