BEARUM SCARUM

A lighthearted countdown in which a bear and his buddies elude the bumblings of a troop of hunters. In a voice that works well as either a jaunty sing-song or as a lullaby, Parker’s verse follows the hunters as they are eliminated, one by one, while they try to hunt down the not particularly wily bear. “Ten hairy hunters start following the trail. / Ten hairy hunters are hot on Bear’s tail. / Ten hairy hunters head into the unknown. / Shhh! Bear’s friends do some hunting of their own. / Nine hairy hunters . . . ” Bolam’s ice cream-colored cartoons follow the action as one man at a time is removed from the hunters’ file by an unlikely cast of ursine pals: elephants, giraffes, tigers, snakes, who end up adorned in their hats, shorts, and shoes. There is an excellent combination in these pages of the mildly hair-raising with the humorous, a kind of slapstick for the very young, as the hunters set traps while oblivious to the fact that they are the quarry. (Picture book. 3-5)