Submitted by Ms. Tess!
The Tree House by the daughter-father-artist team of Marije Tolman and Ronald Tolman is a breathtakingly beautiful book in my opinion. It is a wordless picture book, with the “story” beginning on the front cover. We see a white bear riding a whale (perhaps a latent comment on global warming?) to a tree house in the middle of the water. The white bear is soon joined by a brown bear in a boat, and they decide to share the magnificent tree house. Soon the seasons change, the water disappears, and new animals migrate to and from the bears’ tree house, like gorgeous pink flamingos, adorable owls, and a murder of crows. The bears remain, snacking, reading, and enjoying their life together. It’s a completely lovely and enchanting book with engrossing illustrations that will hopefully spur dialog between you and your child. I implore you to please enjoy The Tree House as soon as you can. See this book listed in our catalog
Bears
Panda and Polar Bear
Tops and Bottoms
Big Bear Hug
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Meet an awesome tree-hugging bear in Big Bear Hug by Canadian artist Nicholas Oldland. This bear has so much love in his heart, he just feels compelled to hug everything in the forest, including things he’s supposed to eat like rabbits, big things like moose, and small things like birds. His favorite thing to hug though, is trees. You name a tree, this bear has hugged it. One day while attempting to hug a tree and a beaver at the same time, the bear sees a man about to chop down one of the most beautiful trees in the forest. It’s not in his nature to hurt a man, so the bear does what he does best. Thankfully, this man is not used to hugging bears and runs far, far away! Read this adorable book with your child, and then go hug some trees of your own! See this book listed in our catalog
Blueberries for Sal
Submitted by Sue from Leonardtown!
Blueberries for Sal, written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey, tells the story of a little girl named Sal and a bear cub. One summer day Little Sal and her Mom decided to go to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries. “We will take our berries home and can them,” said her mother. Little Sal had a small tin bucket just like her mother’s. When she dropped blueberries into the pail it made a kurplunk, kurplunk, kurplunk sound. Sal ate most of the berries she picked and some of her mother’s, until mom said to run along and pick her own berries. On the other side of the hill, Little Bear came with his mother to eat blueberries. Before long, Little Bear and Sal both got tired of trying to keep up with their mothers, and sat still eating berries in the middle of the patch. Then they started out to find their mothers. Unfortunately Little Sal and Little Bear got them mixed up with each other! This story with charming pictures will continue to enchant even after it’s been read. See this book listed in our catalog
Little Bear’s Big Sweater
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Little Bear’s Big Sweater by David Bedford and Caroline Pedler is a great book about brotherhood, and favorite articles of clothing. Big Bear has grown out of his favorite green striped sweater, and must pass it on to his younger brother, Little Bear. “You better take good care of it,” he says, “It’s my favorite sweater – EVER.” Then the brothers run off to play, Little Bear striving to do everything his big brother can (with mixed results). When the brothers get seperated, a worried Big Bear follows a long green thread into woods, and finds Little Bear, with their unraveled sweater. Little Bear expects quite a lashing, but gets a hug instead. “It’s only a sweater,” Big Bear explains, and in the end Mom makes them both new green striped sweaters!