A Bear and His Boy

This whole series is great reading fun for pre-school and up. After a while a child will memorize the words and can literally read it to you! Each story by Bryan leads to the next, and this one is no exception, though a new book has not been released to date. A great gift series/book.

Such a silly and fun book. Makes reading time enjoyable for kids and adults.

By now I think we've established that I am quite fond of Sean Bryan and Tom Murphy's unique brand of picture books. And, yes, they are all similar. But I'm still going to review A Bear and His Boy (2007) because I'm thorough that way. Unlike the first two books in this series, this one is unsurprisingly about a bear who wakes up with a child attached to his head instead of the other way around. Unfortunately for Zach (the Boy), the Bear (Mack) has no time for such frivolity as he immediately tells Zach: "I've got no time to slack. I'm looking at my schedule, and it is jam-packed." Being stuck to Mack's back, Zach has little choice but accompanying Mack on his myriad errands as he buys slacks, and accepts a plaque, among other things. The more he sees Mack running around, the more Zach knows he has to speak up. Finally, at the end of the book, Zach reminds the bear that there is more to life than errands and schedules. Sometimes you just need to take a moment to relax. No matter how busy you are. No matter who is attached to whom. Like the previous installments in this series, the entire novel is written in rhyme which creates a lot of fun combinations throughout the story (flapjacks and slacks are my two favorites). Once again this story is just different enough to keep the premise fresh and unique. The story again ends with a reference to a new character, this time Mack's friend: A giraffe named Ned with a girl on his head which, I can only hope, means this dynamic duo will have a new installment out soon.

I first bought "A Girl and Her Gator" because the girl in the book is Claire, which is my granddaughter's name. When I found out it was second in a series, I purchased the first book, "A Boy and His Bunny," and have now purchased the third book, "A Bear and His Boy." My granddaughter loves these books. She has her mom read them in order each night. They are very humerous and the illustrations are wonderful. Each book ends with an idea of what is next to come. We can't wait for the next book to come out!