The Bear Books By Karma Wilson
Illustrated by Jane Chapman

A cozy Thanksgiving-themed picture book about a bear who wants to have friends over, but thinks he has nothing to offer them.

Description:

What better way for Bear to say thanks, than to have a big dinner with all his friends!

Bear has come up with the perfect way to say thanks—a nice big dinner! When Bear decides to throw a feast, his friends show up one by one with different platters of delicious food to share. There’s just one problem: Bear’s cupboards are bare! What is he to do?

Karma Wilson’s playful text and Jane Chapman’s charming illustrations bring to life this celebration of family and friendship. Young readers will delight in discovering the special gift Bear has to share.

Thoughts:

Bear is all alone in his cave and is very, very bored. The only sound he hears is the wind and he misses his friends. He gets an idea of making dinner to share with everyone, but when he looks in the cupboards he finds they are bare. One of his friends stops by and brings a pie, but once again he realizes he has nothing to share. Then, another friend stops by his cave and brings something else to eat followed by another friend with more food and then another and another. Even though bear has no food to offer, they all pitch in and make it a real feast and are all just thankful they share this with each other.

The rhyming story is a sweet one with the word “Thanks” repeated several times making it perfect for the holidays. Due to the color of the bear and it being a cave, the major color in the picture book is brown, with dashes of color used for bear’s friends. Sometimes these books that feature the “I have nothing to offer” theme make me feel kind of sad, but I didn’t feel this way about this one, but I didn’t find it overly cheerful either. It was just sweet and leaves you with a nice feeling after you finish.

Rating: 4 stars