picturebook

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, or perhaps a story of friendship. It’s best I suppose to describe Bear meets Bear as a Valentine’s story that succeeds because of a good friend.  A fun holiday book for children.   Please note that during this review I’ll be using amazon affiliate links. 

What do you get with Bear Meets Bear?

Author Jacob Grant presents us with a delightful picture book entitled Bear Meets Bear.  Raincoast Books sent me an ARC in exchange for this Bloomsbury Children’s books picture book.  Running at 40 pages, 3-6 year olds will delight in a shy Bear, his encouraging friend, and the discovery of new friendship. You’ll find it comes as a board book, hardcover, or kindle.

Colourful images flood the pages, with plenty of white space for ease of reading.   The bold font with clear lines makes it a breeze to read.  From the earliest introduction to a Bear with a need… all the way through the Bear having another need fulfilled. 

Friendship and good-natured humour filled the pages.  Poor Bear… finding himself in a situation he didn’t plan, and unsure what to do about it.  His friend Spider comes to his rescue.  

Aren’t the illustrations cute?  One bear, meets another bear, and…… you’ll have to read the story to see what happens in the end. 

Should you Get it?

YES, well okay, This is a lovely book to borrow from the library or to gift to younger friend or member of your family.  It would be a great “baby shower” gift for a momma to share with their baby or older sibling-to-be.   Humour, friendship, and love combined in a sweet picture book. 

Have you ever wondered about death?  Children ask questions about death frequently, particularly if their families have been touched by it.  Bigger than a Dream seeks to answer those questions. Affiliate links will be used in this review.

Bigger Than a Dream, details

Raincoast Books sent me Bigger Than a Dream to review. 

Author Jef Aerts along with Illustrator Marit Tornqvist have produced a picture book where image and story follow each other closely.  Talking about death is often very difficult for people to do, especially with children.  Mr Aerts tackles this issue with his most recent book. 

He tells the story of a young lad who misses his sister who died. And so they talk about death and what it means.

Levine Querido c/o Chronicle Books are the publishers of this 48 page picture book geared to children 4-8 years old. 

Looking Within

The font is a great size for reading easily, but sometimes that background makes the words harder to read.  This especially if you are trying to read with a group of children. 

Don’t you just love when illustrations fit well with the storyline?   When you almost know what the words will say just by seeing the images?  This is what Marit Tornqvist does with the story, bringing it so easily to life. 

Many of the illustrations are done with blues, greens and darker colours.  Colours that relate well to depth of the conversation contained within these pages.

Should you Get it?

I don’t know.  To be honest I was a bit weirded out by a little boy talking with his long-dead sister.  I know it was all kind of a dream, but it doesn’t start off that way.  It was difficult to distinguish the lines.    I expect a younger elementary student might have that same problem. 

From a homeschooling perspective, this picture book would be very helpful if exploring how death is handled in different cultures. 

Bigger than a Dream does help us see the questions that young children ask about death, and gives some potential answers.  For that I am happy.