BEAR'S SCARE

A house-proud bear is convinced that his house is clean and everything inside is in shipshape condition.

He and his dearest friend, Ursa, a tiny stuffed bear, clean the house from top to bottom every day. However, when mysterious webs start appearing all over the house, Bear realizes they have a messy problem. Things go from bad to worse when, in his effort to locate the spider, Bear topples furniture and inadvertently tears off little Ursa’s arm. Distraught, he lies on the floor, the wounded bear in his arms, before running to fetch a first aid kit. When he returns, he discovers that the little bear’s arm has been neatly reattached with…spider webs! The jaunty little spider (who wears a beret and has been visible to readers all along) now becomes Bear’s friend, along with all its webby relatives. The fairly slight story, with its simple message of teaching tolerance, is saved from mundanity by Grant’s stylish, charcoal-and-crayon illustrations, digitally colored in an unusual muted palette of peaches and browns. The white webs stand out well in the pictures, and readers will have fun pointing out the spider in illustrations where Bear has not spotted it, as well as all the little spiders larking about. The repetitive, declarative text is ideal for beginning readers.

A sweet, feel-good story with plenty of interesting visual detail.