Ross Collins has charmed us again with a sequel to There’s a Bear on my Chair.
But this time, the cheeky mouse is causing all the problems. He’s arrived at Bear’s house with a box. It looks like he’s moving in and hanging pictures on the wall.
There’s nothing that Bear can do to get that mouse out of the house!
Bear suggests a trip to Luxembourg, Mexico, Timbuktu or Borneo, but no, the mouse just does not want to go.
Mouse settles in and dresses up, helps himself to the food, plays loud music and takes a bath. Oh no! Just when things couldn’t get any worse, there’s a knock. Who could it be behind the red door?
I just love this playful, rhyming story. The illustrations are bright, elegant and expressive. The colours are bold and eye catching. Bear is wonderfully grumpy and at the same time, forbearing, despite being so big. Mouse is cheeky, and at the same time, endearing, full of mischief and mayhem.
I can highly recommend this picture book for children 2-4 years and below are more of my favourite picture book stories which feature mice…I didn’t know I had so many!
There’s a Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins
The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright Illustrated by Jim Field
The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter
Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff Illustrated by Felicia Bond
The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
Little Mouse and the Red Wall by Britta Teckentrup
The Mouse’s Apples by Frances Stickley Illustrated by Kristyna Litten
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Wood Illustrated by Don Wood
A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni
The Mouse who wasn’t Scared by Petr Horacek
Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
Little Mouse by Rod Campbell
We’re Getting a Cat! by Vivian French Illustrated by Salvatore Rubbino
A Mouse called Julian by Joe Todd-Stanton
Maisy Goes to the Library by Lucy Cousins
Meet Angelina Ballerina by Katharine Holabird Illustrated by Helen Craig
Claris by Megan Hess
I Am A Tiger by Karl Newson Illustrated by Ross Collins
We bought a polar bear many years ago for our seven-year-old daughter. It was creamy white, as long as the width of a single bed, as cuddly as my daughter and so soft. Over the years, Snowy has been a pillow, a listener, an observer, a comfort, and a companion. Even today, more grey than creamy, there is something majestic about Snowy as he rests quietly at the end of the bed, his familiar place in our home for more than 20 years.
It’s sad to think that during those years, the real polar bears of this world have been fighting for survival whilst being hunted for sport and commercial interests. The most imminent threat for them is climate change and the effects of early melting of snow and ice in the Arctic during summer and the later freezing during autumn. These trends affect their ability to hunt, the availability of food and the time it takes for them to put on enough weight to survive the summer months going into winter.
Jenni Desmond has written and illustrated this gorgeous picture book about polar bears. We begin reading about these endangered animals through the eyes of a young girl as she picks this picture book off the shelf and begins to imagine herself in the polar bear’s world.
We learn about their Arctic habitat, how the polar bears spend their days, what they like to eat and how their bodies keep them insulated from freezing temperatures. Did you know that while the coat of a polar bear can be yellow or grey, the colour of its skin is black?
Adult male polar bears can weigh around 1,000 pounds. To help us understand how heavy that is, there is a wonderful two page spread with illustrations of twenty children around 7 years old. If you were to pile them up, that’s how heavy an adult polar bear could be.
There is so much more to learn: hunting techniques, life span, extraordinary sense of smell and sight, as well as how a polar bear manages motherhood, its life span in the wild, and how you can figure out its age from counting the rings inside its tooth!
The final page shows our young reader curled up with a mother polar bear and her cubs, it reminded me so much of my daughter with her bear.
I can highly recommend this picture book for children 4-8 years and below are more suggestions for picture books which feature polar bears, some fictional, some humorous and some full of facts to amaze the most curious minds:
Polar Bear, Polar Beat, What Do You Hear by Eric Carle
Where Bear? by Sophy Henn
Love Matters Most by Mij Kelly Illustrated by Gerry Turley
No Place Like Home by Ronojoy Ghosh
The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
The Polar Bear in Sydney Harbour by Robin & Beck Feiner
The Very Hungry Bear by Nick Bland
A Splendid Friend, Indeed by Suzanne Bloom
Virgil & Owen by Paulette Bogan
A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett Illustrated by Shawn Harris
If Polar Bears Disappeared by Lily Williams
The Rainbow Bear by Michael Morpurgo Illustrated by Michael Foreman
That’s Not My Polar Bear by Fiona Watt Illustrated by Rachel Wells
Lily and the Polar Bears by Jion Sheibani
Little Polar Bear by Hans de Beer
Polar Bear’s Underwear by Tupera Tupera
Adrift: An Odd Couple of Polar Bears by Jessica Olien
Ice Bear: in the steps of the polar bear by Nicola Davies Illustrated by Gary Blythe
Sea Bear by Lindsay Moore
The Bear Report by Thyra Heder
Roly Poly by Mem Fox Illustrated by Jane Dyer
Poles Apart by Jeanne Willis Illustrated by Jarvis
