 
|
Bear is bored with his home in the forest. He’s slumped over a bush he’s flattened, hand on chin: “I will find a new home!”
He tries out various homes, but he quickly finds out he’s not suited for life in a nest, a mole hole, a mountain cliff, or underwater. Octopus isn’t ready to have him as a neighbor, either, as she squirts ink all over his face. And even though he looks like a polar bear, sort of, he can’t handle the cold (the snow was so cold under his paws).
The funniest paper collage illustration is the desert scene where bear tiptoes on all fours across the hot desert sand. The camels are trying hard not to giggle.
The rainforest spread is beautiful. Bear’s back is to us, and he’s using as a huge, droopy leaf as an umbrella. You can almost smell the rain just by seeing that page.
The book ends much as I thought it would: Bear goes back to his forest home because he realizes that it's “just where he wanted to be”.
This book teaches children why some animals are better suited for certain environments than others. If you look closely, Bear's bed is a berry bush. Different plants and animals help identify each landscape, and the illustrations seem to have colors from all the seasons.
When I read this for storytime, I asked the children what they liked best about their own home. Caregivers could also ask kids where else the bear could have looked for a home (i.e. He met Cat in her owner’s house, or a spider in her web).
|
|
Welcome Home, Bear: A Book of Animal Habitats