Bear about Town

I bought this book for my son and he absolutely loves it. We both enjoy reading it again and again and go through the town with the Bear. The color is bright and refreshing. Not only the book introduces different activities the bear does around the town, but also introduces the days of the week. I would recommend this book to anybody with young children.

I found this book in a used book store and fell in love with it and so did my son and husband. I plan on ordering the others in the series. There are many things to talk about on each page. For example, when Bear goes to the bakery you can talk about all of the different things you can buy at the bakery, cake, cupcakes, bread including regular loaves of bread or long skinny baguettes, cookies, donuts etc. The language stimulation possibilities are endless the with fabulous pictures throughout the books. As a speech pathologist I look for books with pictures that have a lot to talk about and this book fits the bill.

Bear About Town is a refreshing book which is well written and beautifully illustrated. The words are simple enough for your toddler to gradually learn by heart. The map of bear's town is the best part, a great starting point for curious questions and conversation. We trace bear's path and figure out how to get to different places in bear's town. The colors are bright and cheerful, and the mood is just right for reading together. My child is almost 3, and this has been a favorite since before age 2.

The primary charm of this book is in the illustrations. The text is basic--this is after all a book that is accessible to pre-literate children--but there is enough in the illustrations that an adult reader doesn't have to slog through the same (increasingly dreary) story every time he or she reads it aloud to a child. One can go through pointing out every appearance of the dog, or of the little birds, or of the bees--or whatever. Children can gradually pick up on different repeated elements or images. For example, on "Friday" the bear goes to the toystore, and for sale there is a bucket that appears on subsequent pages. The text never states that that bucket has been purchased, but that is the inference that can be drawn. The bucket (purple with black spots) is half-hidden in the first picture where it makes an appearance--sly visual details like this encourage children to hunt for objects rather than having it all simplistically laid out for them so they see it the first time through. Older children can enjoy retracing Bear's daily routes on the map of Bear's town that makes up the last page of the book.As a parent of small children, I can attest that it is quite difficult to find books with the right balance of pictures, text, and substance--it is annoying to snuggle down with your children with a book that is too short, and bookreading simply doesn't work if you try it with a book that doesn't, for whatever reason, hold a child's attention. With its bright colors and amusing images, this book works for the "very young," yet provides enough content to spare an older reader the worst horrors of gruesome repetition. I'd recommend this book and others in this series (in board book form) as a gift for new parents. It's the kind of story toddlers can "grow into" as they gain language skills.It may sound a little strong to say so, but I'd describe this book as a minor children's classic.