The New Bear At School

Miss Cluck told everyone that the children would be having a new classmate. She even wrote it on the bulletin board: Tuesday-BORIS! Leticia the rabbit, Maxwell the mole, Fergus the fox cub and even the mice were envisioning a nice little teddy for a classmate, but when Boris walked through the door they were some surprised. It's not easy to be the new bear in school because you know darn well everyone is going to look at you like you're some sort of weasel or something. Boris was "an enormous, hairy, scary grizzly bear" WAAAAAAAH! Everyone just "screamed!" Nothing went right for poor Boris the minute he stepped through that door. Crack went the chair, he scared the mice with his fierce looking teeth (to say nothing of those claws!), his new book was torn, everyone yelled at him and no one wanted to sit with him at lunch time. He sat all by his lonesome sticking his "big paw into the jar of honey his mommy had packed for him." Boris just wasn't going to fit in and he even went "crying to Miss Cluck." He was so sad and upset. Was there anything he could do to make everyone at least like him just a little bit? This is an absolutely charming tale of the new kid on the block. Everyone is going to just fall head over heels with big old Boris once they get to know him. The art work is very colorful, appealing and captures the essence of a Kindergarten class with ease. If you want to get the "biggest, widest bear grin" you've had in a while, you'll just have to take a look at this book!

I received this book from my elementary education professor. I love the book. It is very cute, and the illustrations are very good. Poor Boris is too big, too loud, and too scary for the other kids, but he saves the day by inadvertently helping his friends. It gives children the point of view of a very nice but large bear that is just trying to fit in. The book demonstrates that it is important to be yourself, take other's feelings into consideration, and notice that differences can be beneficial. The book is also a good example of adjectives if you would like to incorporate it into a reading lesson. It is also great for kids that might be a little anxious about changing schools or a new student arriving in the classroom.

This is an adorable little book. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is so sweet and funny that it brought a lump to my throat one page and made me laugh out loud the next. Boris, the new bear in school is a little different from the other kids. At first the differences make it hard for him to fit in and poor Boris is sad but then something happens to make the other children understand that differences aren't bad after all. This is a perfect picture book to read to a K- 2nd grade class of kids... If you can get all the way through without tearing up that is!

I'd give this 4.5 stars because the art is so sweet and so is the story. It's not groundbreaking, it's just a simple little childrens book about being the new kid and not really fitting in. But its got a bit of goofy imagination thrown in, and it made me laugh out loud at one of the scenes. Definetly a wonderful little childrens book.