SOMETHING ABOUT A BEAR

With huge, richly detailed pictures (who knew watercolors could make so many different kinds of brown?) and a lucid and near-poetic text, Morris describes the lives and habitats of eight kinds of bear.

Baby pandas are “soft and small as peaches” when they are born. Spectacled bear mothers nurse their cubs in the cloud forest canopy. Polar bears are not white! (Their fur is hollow, and their skin is black.) She packs an amazing amount of information about bears into the text, and that is supplemented by notes on each animal and a handful of websites listed in the backmatter. Even the names of the bears make for evocative reading within the lyrical prose: brown bear, giant panda, sloth bear, spectacled bear, moon bear, polar bear, sun bear, American black bear (and yes, the American black bear comes in many colors, including white). Water, architecture, other plant and animal life, and various indicators of habitat are painted with energy and intensity. Even as she dazzles with the splendid, up-close images and information, Morris does not lose sight of the most important bear of all. Every child will recognize that one.

It is lovely to see natural history and a sense of eco-awareness combined with many children’s most beloved plaything.