Bear's New Friend (The Bear Books)

These have been favorites of my kids for the last few years. My daughter knew all the words by the time she was 3 because we read it to her just about every night. Now she is 8 and will sit with me while I read it to my two year old son, who also already knows all the words. They hold up well and after 8 years are in still very good condition despite being constantly read. You can not go wrong with these easy great stories. I have purchased every book from this author and have gotten every penny out of them. I am sure my kids will be reading them to their kids at some point.

The cadence in this book seems off to me. Some of it rhymes but other parts do not. There are quite a bit of words for a small board book. Though my 9 month old seems to have gotten attached and asks for this book multiple times a day. So something about it must be right.

Disclosure: I received this book for free so that I would review it.

Bear's New Friend is a mildly entertaining story about a band of woodland creatures trying to discover the identity of a new animal they've never seen before. After a series of guesses and misses, the animals finally meet and make friends with the shy newcomer, a small owl.

Nothing about the book really grabbed me. It wasn't especially cute, nor did it have an especially funny, memorable, or instructive storyline. I would have rated it 3 stars, but a few nits bothered me. In particular, I didn't like the bear asking "WHO?" every few pages. This is meant to foreshadow the coming of the owl, but it's not how people speak, and this grated on me. ("Who's there?" or "is there anyone there?" would be more natural, less grating, and perhaps even a little instructional to a young child.) Second, the story wasn't as coherent or logical as I would like, with the mystery animal doing many unusual things that an owl wouldn't do, then a completely different animal or set of animals appears. Do owls hide in holes in the ground? Not that I'm aware of. Finally, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but when the book switched to introducing multiple animals at once, I couldn't tell which was which, so couldn't teach my daughter. Raven and wren? Gopher and mole? Shame on me for not being able to tell them apart right away. Regardless, I would have preferred if the book stuck to the formula of introducing a single new animal each time.

Still, what matters more is my daughter's opinion, not mine. She did ask for the book a second time, which is a good sign. But she clearly doesn't care for it as much as her favorites (Curious George, Dr. Seuss, Disney books, etc.). Also, despite Amazon's classificiation, at 3 years old, I think she's too old for this book and finds it a little boring. It might go over better with younger children.

Disclosure: I received this book for free so that I would review it.

Bear's New Friend is a mildly entertaining story about a band of woodland creatures trying to discover the identity of a new animal they've never seen before. After a series of guesses and misses, the animals finally meet and make friends with the shy newcomer, a small owl.

Nothing about the book really grabbed me. It wasn't especially cute, nor did it have an especially funny, memorable, or instructive storyline. I would have rated it 3 stars, but a few nits bothered me. In particular, I didn't like the bear asking "WHO?" every few pages. This is meant to foreshadow the coming of the owl, but it's not how people speak, and this grated on me. ("Who's there?" or "is there anyone there?" would be more natural, less grating, and perhaps even a little instructional to a young child.) Second, the story wasn't as coherent or logical as I would like, with the mystery animal doing many unusual things that an owl wouldn't do, then a completely different animal or set of animals appears. Do owls hide in holes in the ground? Not that I'm aware of. Finally, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but when the book switched to introducing multiple animals at once, I couldn't tell which was which, so couldn't teach my daughter. Raven and wren? Gopher and mole? Shame on me for not being able to tell them apart right away. Regardless, I would have preferred if the book stuck to the formula of introducing a single new animal each time.

Still, what matters more is my daughter's opinion, not mine. She did ask for the book a second time, which is a good sign. But she clearly doesn't care for it as much as her favorites (Curious George, Dr. Seuss, Disney books, etc.). Also, despite Amazon's classificiation, at 3 years old, I think she's too old for this book and finds it a little boring. It might go over better with younger children.

It's not my favorite - it has some issues with flow - but my 2 year old likes it and I get to do all sorts of voices with it so it's fun. It's a good message/lesson overall. It's good for additional language development and introduces Raven, Wren, Mole, and Badger...animals that may not be as prevalent in other stories.

Fits in nicely with all of the rest of the 'Bear' series books. The jist of this one is Bear (and his usual gang meet up and make a new friend) *spoiler alert* with an owl. It's an easy read without too much forced friendship chatter so it's a light way to teach about making new friends.

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I'm a mother of five children, ages 7 down to 1 year old. The three "littles" as I call them, immediately opened up the book and began oohing and ahhing over the animals and the pictures. I've now read this to them at least a dozen times. The pictures are bright and engaging, and even allow the little ones to make up their own stories and "read" to one another.

It's sturdy, slick, and an easy, quick read. Very very pleased.

Sra. Gose
Mother of Five, Spanish Teacher, Author
Flip Flop Spanish Series

This is a pretty straight forward children's book about meeting a new friend and helps little ones learn about social interactions through a simple narrative about a bear and his friends who encounter a brand new friend in the forest.

I like the story line and I love the illustrations, but I only felt so-so about the writing. The writing wasn't bad, but I read so many children's books to my daughter that I've come to appreciate writing that establishes a clear cadence or rhythm so that there is a natural flow of the words as a parent reads them out loud to a child.

The writing is good, but the word choice and sentence structure is just a little odd enough to make a parent pause at various times when reading to figure out what is being said ... which makes the reading experience less enjoyable and can potentially break a child's focus on the story and makes them want to stop listening and move on to another book.

Bottom line, it's a good book, but I wish the words rolled off my tongue a little better when reading.

My 2-year-old really enjoys this sweet little book, about Bear and his various friends (Mouse, Hare, etc.) who meet a new, shy little critter. It's a nice, sturdy board book, and it's just the right length -- not over in 2 seconds, but short enough to keep a toddler's attention.

In addition, the illustrations are darling! My son really likes learning the names of new kinds of animals, and the realistic-but-kid-friendly drawings are great for that.

My 17 month old grandson loves this book. He wants it read to him over and over