Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Bear's Sea Escape
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Chronicle Books, 2014 ISBN: 978-1452127439
It is a cold snowy day and Papa Bear and his little cub are on top of the opera house. Snowflakes are drifting around them and it is clear that they are going to have to move. Across the roofs of the buildings they go, while people enjoy the festive season in houses and apartments below. The bears desperately need a warm snug place where they can settle down for their winter nap.
The bears end up in a big department store. It is perfect and so they cuddle together in the children’s stuffed toy department and soon they are fast asleep. While they are asleep, a little boy sees the cub, and thinking that it is a toy, he takes him away. Papa bear does not notice that his little cub is gone until the boy and his parents (with the cub) are long gone.
Desperately Papa Bear sets off in hot pursuit. He borrows a scooter and starts searching. The streets are crammed with vehicles of all kinds and Papa Bear has no idea where to look. The frantic bear arrives at the train station just as Little Bear is preparing to get on board. Doggedly Papa Bear grabs hold of the caboose and holds on tight as the train pulls away from the station. Where is the train going?
Papa Bear soon finds out when the family of the little boy (who seems to have adopted Little Bear) arrives at the port where they board a huge cruise ship. The ship is so huge in fact that Papa Bear, who has snuck on board, is quite lost. Faithfully he searches high and low for his missing cub. Poor Papa Bear has no idea that more searches in all kinds of places lie in his future.
In this wonderful book children are taken on a grand adventure from snowy, wintery climes to a tropical paradise. They will love exploring the large format artwork and will discover all kinds of interesting things on the image-packed pages. They will of course look for Little Bear first, but there are so many other things to find as well, and so many ancillary stories being told on every spread.
