EVERY AUTUMN COMES THE BEAR

In a brief, conversational narrative, Vermonter Arnosky describes a bear arriving on the rocky, wooded hill near his home, disturbing a bobcat in his explorations, taking a last drink from the spring, clawing a tree, and choosing a den for the winter (``Nestled there against cold rock, with only fat and fur to keep him warm''). In Arnosky's luminous watercolors, many other species appear, not all named but all identifiable in his carefully observed art—raccoon, fox, porcupine, deer, cheery little redbreasted nuthatches. As in his other animal portraits (Otters Under Water, 1992), the simply sketched settings are artfully constructed and interestingly varied; on this day, at different times between dawn and dusk, the sun gleams through the shadowed woods and later there's a snow flurry. Again, real natural history in a lovely book. (Picture book. 3-8)