In my never ending quest to read all things Karma Wilson I recently put a Christmas book on hold at our library. While we are months past Christmas…I knew my daycare children would enjoy Bear Stays Up for Christmas none the less.


The Story

Getting a big old bear to stay awake for Christmas is a tall order for all of the woodland creatures that are Bear’s friends.

They wake him the day before Christmas and tell him not to worry they’ll keep him busy both day and night so that he won’t fall asleep again.

The group does things together, like going out and getting a Christmas tree and going back to the lair to make popcorn and decorate the tree. They bake and hang stockings and sing O Holy Night and Bear manages to stay awake as his friends end up dozing off.

He has fun wrapping gifts and putting things under the tree and the biggest surprise is when they all realize that Santa had been there and left gifts for everyone as well, including a quilt for Bear, that was just his size.

His friends tidy up
and slip from the lair.
They whisper, “Sweet dreams.
Merry Christmas, dear Bear.”


The Illustrations

The beautiful acrylic painting illustrations in this book are done in browns, black, white and a bit of red and green. The drawings are soft with muted shadings of color.

All of the animals, including Bear, are done with the same expressive faces that they have had in all the other Bear books. They are cute and whimsical and yet we know what each animal is, because they are also drawn to look like what they are. Badger looks like a badger, but with an expressive face. Wren looks like a wren, and so forth.

We have had so much fun looking a the drawings in this book and finding cute new things that we hadn’t noticed before.. Things like the cutest little snowman on the last page and the hats and necklaces that the animals wear as they wake Christmas morning. Right down to a tiny little tree that the birds decorate, this book has wonderful illustrations that are interesting and fun.

The text is a large black font that is placed so that it is easily seen on each of the pages, even though on many pages there is a colorful background the text is very easy to read.


My Feelings

I was pleased as I first opened this book and saw the dedication:

To Jane Chapman, an artist whose illustrations are like a Christmas gift to this author---thanks.
Bear and his friends say thank you as well. K.W.

That just made me admire Karma even more. What a wonderful author she is. I do hope that she’ll be doing more Bear books…my daycare kids just love them!

Even though our reading of this book doesn’t fit at all with Christmas, the kids had a great time hearing about how Hare and Gopher, Mole and Raven go about keeping Bear up for Christmas morning. They loved that as Bear was making surprises for all of his friends, we could see Santa Claus outside of the cave ready to surprise Bear too.

As in other Bear books there is one line but the bear stays up! that is used over and over. The kids love listening for the words and saying them along with me. Finally, it is cute that the end of the book says Then Bear falls asleep. They were a bit surprised that the book used this different line and laughed when I said it quickly.

I love the friendship between the animals and the way they are all there for each other. They take care of each other and make sure that everyone is happy. They show love and ways to express it. It is great to show my daycare children about loving and friendship and how to get along. Any book that does that is a good book as far as I’m concerned.

As in other Bear books, this book uses the word Hare for the rabbit and lair for Bear’s cave. I was very pleased that the kids are remembering what these words mean and love being able to make language a fun thing to think about. We’ve been talking about the way words sound and how they can mean different things…the Bear books are what started us really paying attention language.

I, of course, very highly recommend Bear Stays Up for Christmas as well as the other Bear books… Bear Snores On and Bear Wants More.


Nuts & Bolts

Bear Stays Up for Christmas was written by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman.

Margaret K. McElderry Books published this 32 page hardcover book in 2004.

This book has an age recommendation of 3 – 7 years and can be purchased for a jacket price of $16.95 US and $25.50 CAN.

ISBN: 0-689-85278-9


Recommended: Yes