Joan Sandin

The purpose of the story is to entertain and provide some visuals of the pioneer times such as farms, clothing, and technology (camera). I liked how the author gave the bear a sense of personality such as hiding on top of the roof, peaking at the boy through the window, and overall bashful for having a new visitor came to the house. His actions reflected a shy but curious personality where he wanted to observe what was happening, but wanted to keep his distance. The only thing I wasn’t too show more sure about was the author’s decision to underline particular words such as “was” and “told” as there were no defined terms on the side or in the back of the book. The reader may have a misunderstanding or question as to why the author decided to do this and for what reason. Since it is not clear, it serves as a distraction from the story and as readers read. Overall, however, the progression of the story had a nice surprise at the end where the bear ends up not being lost at all, but just hiding up in the tree. I find young children may like this surprise at the end. show less

This book was cute but could have been shortened a lot. I liked the ending when Bearly turned up in the family portrait. What I did not like about the book is that it does not tell you why Bearly doesn't come our to get his picture taken. The book lets you assume that he is shy but you are never given a real answer as to why. The book does a good job of setting the scene around the pioneer era. The book shows you what the houses, dress and food is like at the time. The main idea of this book show more is to delve into another era but add a cute, intriguing twist to it. show less

I like this book for two reasons. One was the characters. I do not think when learning about the pioneer time that readers would expect a bear but having the bear who was a well developed character was a wonderful idea. The bear also had his own personality without even talking. Another reason why I like this book is because of the illustrations. I love how the illustrator used water colors to really bring out the story and to draw the reader in with the vibrant colors. I think the main idea show more of this story is to inform the readers about the pioneer times. show less

After reading this book, I had mixed feelings about it. First I did not like how the author underlined three words throughout the book such as photographer, told, and was. I was not sure why those particular words were underlined because it did not come with a glossary. On the other hand I liked the language of the book. It was very descriptive making it easy to figure out the time period which was the pioneer days. One example of knowing this was when Mrs. Irwin said she had never seen a show more camera before. Another example was when Jennie talked about her hoop skirts. Through the illustrations, the readers are able to tell that this book was set in the past. The overall message of this story is to inform readers about the pioneer days. show less