In this delightful children’s picture book, which I gather is slightly autobiographical, David McPhail talks to us in the persona of a bear who has learned how to draw. He didn’t always know how, though – that came slowly.
It really all began when Bear was having his lessons in how to be a bear. His mother was very anxious for him to learn how to do all the things a bear should do. She taught him how to walk like a bear, how to sit like a bear, how to choose which berries were safe to eat, and how to fish and gather honey. Sometimes she would give him long lectures, and during these lectures, he started doodling in the dirt on the floor of the cave while she talked. She didn’t mind, as long as he was still listening. He discovered that the more he drew, the better his pictures looked.
Whenever he and the other bears would go to the dump, he gathered up scraps of paper to use in his drawing. He drew a picture for his mother that made her so proud, she hung it up right away.
Time came for Bear to go to school. (Interestingly enough, he’s the only animal in a class of human children.) His teacher loved his drawings.
He began to visit the museum, and by trying to imitate the pictures he saw there, he learned techniques for making his own work better. Sometimes he would even wake up in the middle of hibernation so he could draw!
As he got older, he became more and more famous for his art, but all the fame doesn’t really matter to him. The best thing is that he gets to do what he loves best – drawing!
The fly leaves of this book are filled with tips on how to draw a tree. This is a great story for encouraging your own budding artist and helping them to understand that with lots of practice, they can develop their talents into something pretty wonderful. Plus, the bear’s cute, too.
(This book was published in 2000 by Little, Brown and Company and was illustrated by the author.)
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The Picture Books of Laura Joffe Numeroff
Letting Your Kids Control Their Free Time
Author Interview — Lynne Jonell