Wonder Bear

A young boy and girl plant their seeds one day in this gorgeously-illustrated book, and awaken to discover that something magical has occurred! Wonder Bear takes them on a series of fantastic voyages in this wordless picture-book, only to return them safe and sound to their beds.

Tao Nyeu's lovely illustrations, which must carry the entire story, are reminiscent of Wanda Gag's work in style, although they utilize a far more subtle array of colors. I sometimes find wordless picture-books rather off-putting, but the charming visual landscape of Wonder Bear was sufficient to compensate for the lack of text.

A wordless book that is full of fantastic illustrations that tell the story. The story is a bout a boy and girl who grow a garden with magical seeds. when the plants grow, a magical white bear emerges with a top hat. He takes the boy and girl on an other-wordly adventure with the monkeys and sea animals he pulls from his hat. When the day is done and the children are put to bed, the white bear gathers up everything he pulled from his hat and goes back to the plants. The author tells a wonderful story simply from illustrations and the illustrations are amazing to look at. I loved how even if I had a story to go with the book the first time I went through it, the second time I discovered new things in the pictures and wold adapt my story show more or think of another story line to go with it. This would be great for children look at and come up with their own words to go along with the story. show less

I think Tao Nyeu may rapidly be becoming my favorite children's book author/illustrator of all time. Looking through the book, my response was to gasp in wonder on more than one occasion. Aptly titled, beautiful.

I was really predisposed to love this book but I didn't. I'll admit though that there's a lot of creativity in both the content and the imagery. I usually like wordless stories but this time I wasn't touched. The illustration style is very bold, and I'm sure many will be drawn to it, but I neither cared for the drawings nor the color palette. It's strange, because individually I fancy the colors used, it just didn't work for me. The story could have had more drama or depth, but it's geared towards really young kids, so we're not the target audience. My five year old was however both amused and delighted, but he won't pick it up again. I could compare the style of this book to some of [a:Kevin Henkes'|193|Kevin show more Henkes|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1257746190p2/193.jpg] stuff, he sometimes makes these odd choices with colors, such as in [b:My Garden|7149888|My Garden|Kevin Henkes|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1268853281s/7149888.jpg|7415051], [b:A Good Day|317813|A Good Day|Kevin Henkes|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347261741s/317813.jpg|308607], [b:Old Bear|3429644|Old Bear|Kevin Henkes|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347664012s/3429644.jpg|3470539], [b:Little White Rabbit|8471012|Little White Rabbit|Kevin Henkes|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348532050s/8471012.jpg|13335679]. Yet, I tend to think his books are brilliant, whereas in this one I didn't quite understand the choices made. Also, I'm not at all opposed to the pictures being more or less graphic, for instance I'm really fond of [b:Along a Long Road|9642660|Along a Long Road|Frank Viva|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344270931s/9642660.jpg|14530106] and [b:A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse|13414820|A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse|Frank Viva|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1333581515s/13414820.jpg|18714281]. Anyway, I'm using a lot of words to attempt to describe where this book went wrong with me. Why would I care? Because, I was so longing to like it. This said, I will be glad to read more books by this author to try to change my mind. So, happily moving on to [b:Bunny Days|7386860|Bunny Days|Tao Nyeu|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1356095700s/7386860.jpg|9245957] and [b:Squid and Octopus Friends for Always|13447325|Squid and Octopus Friends for Always|Tao Nyeu|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1335676245s/13447325.jpg|18963846] ... show less

By far my favorite book on this list! Striking, intricate, plentiful illustrations. I could not stop looking at every single piece of art on each page. Fantastic storyline, which allows for various interpretations and commentary. Scrapbooking in story form!

Wonder Bear, a wordless picture book, starts off with two children climbing a hill to plant a garden. One row is for watermelon and the other is for...a hat? The children fall asleep next to the garden and as they sleep a vine begins to grow full of magical flowers. Emerging from one of the flowers is Wonder Bear, wearing a hat. Ah-ha! Once the hat is removed, a group of monkeys jump out and entertain the children. Wonder Bear blows and sea creatures begin to fly through the air. This is a book that is sure to delight. Because there are no words, the story can be different every time, encouraging children's imaginations and storytelling.

I stumbled across this at my local library's book sale and fell instantly in love with its gorgeous whimsy. A stunning debut.