The Bears We Know was originally published in 1989 as an Annikin, a tiny-format picture book designed for small pockets. It has now been reissued in a larger format, fleshed out with new illustrations. The book starts with a house – a big, brown, somewhat ramshackle house, partly hidden at the end of a road. Who lives there? The narrators imagine three large, brown, very messy bears: “We have never seen the bears, but we know they are there. And we know what they do.” The “we” in the title is never clearly identified, but one gets the strong sense of a parent and child who pass by the house regularly and invent details of the unseen lives within.

The rest of the book is a catalogue of exactly what it is the bears do behind those closed doors: they sleep in, watch TV, and eat whatever they want. They carry a couch home from the dump just so they can jump on it. They never clean up – in fact, they throw sawdust around if the place starts to look too clean. From a child’s point of view, this is definitely the good life, and despite themselves, parents may be tempted to agree.

The details are what really make the book work – the happy jumble of sleeping bears on the bed, the mismatched curtains hanging on a curtain rod held together with duct tape, the red wagon in the living room, and the piles and piles of garbage – chip packets, crumbs, paper cups, and eggshells. It’s a fine mess.

Vlasta van Kampen captures the mischief in bright cheery watercolours, which are easier to see and appreciate in the larger format. As for the text, Brenda Silsbe’s writing is as infectious as ever. That conspiratorial “we” practically invites readers to join in by imagining other details of the bears’ lives, which could lead to some fascinating parent-child conversations. A fabulous read-aloud.