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Wherever Bears Be

by Sue Ann Alderson, Arden Johnson, illus.

In Vancouver writer Sue Ann Alderson’s latest book, the bickering sisters Samantha and Belinda head up the mountain to pick berries. Along the way, they imagine they see and hear bears everywhere. Samantha sings a song to keep them away, but the girls’ fear soon turns to longing to see the bears having fun. At the conclusion, the girls have picked their berries, leaving lots for the animals, patched up their differences, and concluded that the bears are “some other where.”

Like the enormously successful We’re Going on a Bear Hunt,/I> by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, this text is carried by its rhyme and rhythm, and its suspenseful anticipation of an encounter with the bears. It lends itself to a spirited reading, though its alliteration, onomatopoeia, near-rhymes, and inverted syntax can make it a treacherous read-aloud on the first attempt. The difficult hybrid of the prose-poem creates such unnatural phrasing as “Why, I’ve banged my pot on its side, spilled my berries! Oh, no! Almost half!” and “We have to pick blueberries high on the mountain, Belinda, you and I,” which may frustrate the young listener.

The third voice in this text belongs to the imaginary bears, which Arden Johnson has drawn with great exuberance. They half-appear on every other page, and readers will enjoy trying to find them, Waldo-style, in these scenes. Ultimately, though, Johnson’s relatively monochromatic palette and her subtle blurring of images may fail to captivate such a young audience.

Wherever Bears Be does present challenges to the reader, but performing it with energy and some practice will surmount these difficulties. It will appeal to children aged three to five.

 

Reviewer: Laurie McNeill

Publisher: Tradewind Books/General Distribution

DETAILS

Price: $18.95

Page Count: 32 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 1-896580-18-1

Released: May

Issue Date: 1999-5

Categories: Children and YA Fiction, Picture Books

Age Range: ages 3–7