I PROMISE

A wise mother bear teaches her cub all about promises as they enjoy a day spent together.

When Baby Bear asks Mother Bear to sing to him, she tells him, “Later….I promise!” This leads him to ask what “promise” means. In Mother Bear’s voice, McPhail proves he is a genius in communicating at a child’s level in simple language: “A promise is when you say you will do something…and then do your very best to do it.” But Baby Bear isn’t finished with his questions. What if you don’t do it? “Then it becomes a broken promise.” Can it be fixed? “Not easily….That’s why it’s so important to keep it.” From this conversation, Baby Bear realizes that when he says he will play with a friend, he needs to follow through or it may hurt his friend’s feelings. And when Baby Bear asks what else his mother promises him, she tells him of all the things a mother gives to and hopes for her child: good food to eat, time spent together, and especially her love, forever and always. McPhail’s full-bleed spreads are done in pen and ink and watercolor in blues, greens, and browns and show the gentle love of the bears for each other and also their enjoyment of the natural world: waterfall, river, meadow, forest, apple orchard.

Ideal for starting discussions about promises and expressing motherly love.