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New York Times bestselling children’s author David Elliott has written a soulful and melodic book about the power of a child’s dreams. The haunting illustrations by Max Grafe enhance the simple beauty of the text.
The story starts with a scene familiar in many homes…a small boy snuggles in bed with his Teddy. As the boy starts to dream, his Teddy grows in size, popping his button nose and turning into a giant grizzly bear. The boy himself turns into a grizzly, and the two bears – “one big, one small” – amble down the hallway, which has turned into a forest. The bears cavort all night long among other night creatures like the fox and the owl, eating mountain sedges and fishing in icy streams. The forest has become their home.
As day breaks, the two grizzly bears leave the wild behind and make their way back to bed, and none but Teddy is the wiser that the boy knows “what the grizzly knows.”
What the Grizzly Knows brings to mind Max Sendak’s much-loved Where the Wild Things Are; both books share a gentle wonder and delight at a child’s imagination. This is a magical book, perhaps even a slightly scary one (although a child is not likely to pick up on that thread). With its meditative and lyrical quality, What the Grizzly Knows is a book that can be read at many levels, and time and time again.
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What the Grizzly Knows