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Kevin Henkes - Old Bear

Kevin Henkes - Old Bear
Overall Rating: Product Rating: 5.0
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Old Bear...A Children's Book of the Four Seasons by Kevin Henkes

Written: Oct 26 '09

Product Rating: Product Rating: 5.0
Pros: *Fantastic, wonderful, beautiful, charming illustrations
*Simple beautiful story

Cons: *Not a one!

The Bottom Line: I very highly recommend Old Bear for children two and up.  It is a simple story with a wonderful Bear teaching about seasons.
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kamel622's Full Review: Kevin Henkes - Old Bear

My favorite way to find books to read to my daycare children is through other Epinion reviewers.  Reading some of my favorite writers helps me to find, books that I know will be enjoyed by my little group.

When I recently read a review by Befus of the book Old Bear by Kevin Henkes I knew I had to check it out.  With winter coming and talking about the seasons with 4 year old Dani I knew this would be a book we'd both enjoy.

The Story

This is a very simple story of a bear who goes to bed for the winter and begins dreaming.

Old Bear dreamed of beautiful spring days and being a young cub and large beautiful flowers.  He dreamed of the warmth of summer with a daisy sun, leaves made of butterflies and a sky that rains blueberries.  He dreamed of the yellows and oranges and browns of autumn, even the birds and fish in the water were these vibrant colors.  He dreamed of the quiet of winter with a sky filled with stars of blazing colors.

"It was night, and the sky was blazing with stars of all colors.
The cold went on forever."

When he woke up he poked his head out of his den to see if it was still snowing and to his surprise it was a beautiful spring day and he realized he wasn't dreaming at all.

The Illustrations

The beautiful watercolor and ink drawings in this really manage to convey the feeling of each season it represents.

Spring is filled with bright pinks and purples and greens while the cold winter is represented so well with the use of blues and snowy white.

Each page is covered edge to edge with its vibrant colors and detailed drawings.  Pages with just the bear utilize panels of him while pages conveying the beauty of a season use a double page spread.

The text uses differing colors on the pages to match the season each page is representing.  It is a medium large font that is placed on a white background on each page, making it an easy book to hold up and read or to share with a child at bedtime.

Our Feelings

The beautiful vibrant pages of this book could almost tell the story without the use of any text as we see Old Bear go from season to season.  Each of the seasons has a two page spread that is devoted to helping the reader feel the emotion of the season.  I swear I almost shiver each time I turn to the page about winter and see all the snow covering trees and the hills in front of Bear.

Dani and I have read this book many times and one of her favorite pages is when Bear wakes up and blinks his eyes.  The page shows the brown Bear with his eye wide open...the eye is very large and makes us blink at each other and giggle everytime.

The rhythmic story is a very simple one with just two or three sentences to describe the activity of each two page spread so can be a very quick read although we always spend time admiring and enjoying the fun and fanciful illustrations.

I would recommend this book for children as young as two years old and I think up to around 8 or 9 year olds will enjoy spending some time with Old Bear.

Nuts & Bolts

Old Bear was written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes, a fellow Wisconsinite.

Greenwillow Books published this 32 page hardcover book in 2008 with a jacket price of $17.99 US and $19.50 CAN

ISBN:  97800061552052


This review is my first entry in to the Sleeper free Lean-n-Mean write-off Graciously hosted this year by Jenniferkateb and Jurgrace!

Recommended:
Yes

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kamel622

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kamel622
kamel622 is an Advisor on Epinions in Kids & Family, Hotels & Travel, Books
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♥ Merry Christmas ♥ ::smile:::

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1-4 of 5 stores Store Rating Price
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Beautiful illustrations infused with the color of the seasons, a deeply satisfying text, and a huggable old bear remembering the cub he once was make ... More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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Store Rating: 3.5
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Pages: 32, Hardcover, Greenwillow Books More at Amazon
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Fantastic prices with ease & c... (In stock)
Pages: 32, Hardcover, Greenwillow Books More at Amazon Marketplace
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Snug and warm, curled and furry, Old Bear sleeps. Red, orange, and brown leaves fly through the air, and it is snowing hard. Old Bear doesn t notice. ... More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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