Grizzwold (I Can Read Book 1)

Reason for Reading: My son read aloud to me as his reader.

Grizzwold is typical Syd Hoff. Wonderful, expressive, humorous illustrations decorate a funny story with a subtle message and an oversized lovable main character. Grizzwold is a huge bear, the biggest in the forest. Soon there is a bang and he sees men chopping down trees until one day there are no trees in the forest. Grizzwold takes the men to task and they apologize but explain they are loggers and how paper must be made. Grizzwold can't live in a forest without trees so he goes to look for trees in a desert, on a mountain, in a house, etc. He even tries out the zoo and circus where he finds other bears but that's not for him. When he finally comes to a new forest he is so happy and so are the hunters, until a park ranger saves the day telling all that this is a National Park where bears are safe and hunters do not belong.

I really appreciate how the 1960s version of this environmental message is portrayed in a subtle way, telling both sides of an issue fairly. While at the same time, it still comes out siding with nature and gives the reader something to think about or discuss. Many of today's writers of children's environmentalist stories could take a lesson on the form shown here. It shows when a book published in 1963 is still in print almost 50 years later! Yeah Syd Hoff!

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