No bears (2011)

There ARE bears in this entertaining metafictional, fractured fairy tale. ( )

Ella creates her ideal story that absolutely does not include bears. Stories should be about princesses, monsters, castles and fairies. This book has very busy pages for young eyes to enjoy. ( )

This is Ella’s book and she’s here to tell you that it’s a wonderful book because there are absolutely no bears in it. According to Ella, there are lots of things you need for a really good book: pretty things, scary things, funny things, castles, princesses, a monster, but no bears, not even one. As Ella creates her story, about a princess who is chased by a scary monster, it’s a good thing she doesn’t notice the benevolent bear hiding behind the pages of her book.

The fun element of this book is that the text tells Ella’s story, but the illustrations show quite a different story. The text is written from Ella’s point of view and is conversational, spoken directly to the reader, making it a great read aloud book. Rudge’s illustrations are delicate and whimsical, using a soft palate and lots of fun patterns. The clever illustrations not only tell Ella’s story, but manage to include a host of other fairy tale characters, from Red Riding Hood to Rapunzel.

Full Review at Picture-Book-a-Day: http://picturebookaday.blogspot.com/2012/05/book-143-no-bears-by-meg-mckinlay.ht...

Richie’s Picks: NO BEARS by Meg McKinlay and Leila Rudge, ill., Candlewick, March 2012, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-5890-8

“Hi! I’m Ella and this is my book.
You can tell it’s a book because there are words like Once upon a time
and Happily ever after
and The END.
I’m in charge of this book, so I know everything about it --
including the most important thing, which is that there are NO BEARS in it.”

I cannot remember his name, but as I read NO BEARS to myself, I am so clearly hearing in my head the loud voice of a nasally three year-old boy who was my preschool student two decades ago:

“BUT THERE’S A BEAR RIGHT THERE!!!”

I can just imagine him suddenly standing up in circle, and pointing accusingly at the book to make sure that all the kids see what the little girl narrator of the story (Ella) is obviously missing.

“I’m tired of bears. Every time you read a book, it’s just BEARS BEARS BEARS -- horrible furry bears slurping honey in awful little caves.
You don’t need BEARS for a book.”

Yes, they are going to get such a kick out of this one -- a book-within-a-book story that is filled full of no bears.

“You need pretty things.
You need fairies and princesses
and castles.
You need funny things,
exciting things,
and scary things--
maybe a monster
or a giant or something.”

In addition to no bears, we find visual allusions to a variety of tales young audiences will all know, such as Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs, and The Owl and the Pussycat.

NO BEARS is a very fun read and a visual delight. (And in addition to it’s being filled with no bears, keep a watch for who is peeking out from behind the barcode on the back of the book’s dust jacket.)

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php ( )