A Kiss for Little Bear

First published in 1968, this fifth and final early reader devoted to the childhood adventures of Little Bear opens as its eponymous ursine hero is painting a picture - one depicting a monster who looks quite a bit like one of the Wild Things from illustrator Maurice Sendak's own classic picture-book, Where the Wild Things Are - for his grandmother. Giving the painting into the keeping of his friend Hen, Little Bear asks her to take it to Grandmother Bear, which she faithfully does, receiving a kiss for Little Bear in return. Slightly less faithful in this second delivery, Hen gives the kiss to Frog, who in turn gives it to Cat, setting off a chain that eventually leads back to: Little Bear!

Unlike the four previous books in this series show more - Little Bear, Father Bear Comes Home, Little Bear's Friend, and Little Bear's Visit - which each contained four brief stories or chapters, A Kiss for Little Bear contains one single story. It is a sweet tale, highlighting the love between grandson and grandmother, and concluding with an amusing wedding that is brought about by the passing of Little Bear's kiss. Sendak's artwork here is top-notch, with many little expressive details. I loved some of the facial expressions, from Hen's much-put-upon disgruntlement at being made a messenger, to Skunk's outraged visage when confronted with Little Bear kissing his bride! All in all, another lovely Little Bear book, one I would recommend to all beginning readers, as well as to fans of Maurice Sendak's work. show less

I enjoyed this book because of the pattern and organization of the langugae. The book is sequencial and includes patterned language for the majority of the book until the end of story. In the story Little Bear's Grandmother asks the Hen to deliever Little Bear a kiss. The Hen continues to ask another animal to deliever the kiss to Little Bear, and the pattern of asking a different animal to deliever the kiss continues. This consistent pattern facilitates early readers ability to read the book, because they may catch on to the pattern and understand the only new words in the story will be the different animals introduced. The different animals mentioned in the story have different attributes and mannerisms, teaching children different show more characteristics of animals. I believe the main message of this story is to trust in your friends and divide big tasks amongst a group of people, just as Hen did when he was asked to deliever the kiss to Little Bear. show less

A Kiss for Little Bear
“A Kiss for Little Bear” by Elsie Holmelund Minarik is another classic. The writing is engaging and well organized. The story begins by Little Bear drawing a picture and wanting to send it to his Grandmother. As a thank you for the picture, Grandmother wants to send a kiss back to Little Bear. The plot is organized with the book being sequenced with the kiss being passed from hen, to frog, to cat, to skunk, back to hen and finally arrives to Little Bear. Although the text on each page is simple, the illustrations enrich the detail of the story. For example, “She was very pretty. He gave the kiss to her. And she gave it back” is the text when the skunks receive Little Bear’s kiss; however, the pictures are show more earth tones and Maurice Sendak (the illustrator) provides great expressions on the characters faces and includes great details that evoke feelings. Ironically, the picture that Little Bear drew in the very beginning of the book is a monster. The monster resembles the monsters in “Where the Wild Things Are”, young readers may or may not notice this. It would be a great opportunity to explain that both books have the same illustrator! On the following page when Hen comes back and says “too much kissing” Hen’s face looks very frustrated! The big idea is to tell of the travels of Little Bear’s kiss! show less

Sweet, simple, flow of text accompanied by beautiful illustrations. The animal expressions in the illustrations are so telling. Sentimental, without being overly sappy.

ah! Brought back memories when my mother read it to me. A very sweet book, simple and actually entertaining. There is humor (cat having to get into the pond to kiss a frog), and skunks who would not stop kissing...a must have if you have little one's learning how to read.

I remember reading these books when I was young. Once I was a better reader I took one of the little bear books to my babysitters and couldn't wait to read it to her. These are great books for begining readers and humerous too, the animals do quite funny things.

I used to love this book! Reading it again brought back some good memories of my mother kissing me all the time. The Bears grandma sends him a kiss, which goes from a frog to a cat, to a skunk, and finally a chicken gives the little bear his kiss.