As part of my quest to see all the lesser /lesser known Sendak, I am working my way through the Little Bear series. Written by Else Holmelund Minarik, these books’ covers tag them as “An I CAN READ Book,” and, strictly speaking, they are more early readers than picture books.
There are dozens of those books (who knew?), and they all share certain qualities. They all focus on Little Bear, his family, and friends. They are all easy to read, and they all have a nicely gentle tone. They feel like kids books, and perhaps a bit older than current books. (The first book, Little Bear, came out in 1959.)
I’m on record as saying I found Father Bear Comes Home well-illustrated, but a bit flat and inconsistent. On the other hand, A Kiss for Little Bear, published a few years later, is more ambitious, moving, and coherent. This book, Little Bear’s Friend, comes between those two books chronologically, and so one might expect it to fall between them qualitatively too.
And it does. The illustrations are, of course, lovely and focused. That’s consistent throughout the series. This book focuses on Little Bear, first exploring the world and then interacting with other creatures/characters. This gives Little Bear more agency than he’d had in Father Bear Comes Home, creates more energy, and gives more reasons for the illustrations to differ. The writing is still simple, but is stronger, with nice little touches. The description of Little Bear up a tree feeling the wind is quietly poetic, and his explanation to some young birds that he too can fly, but he only flies down is both funny and realistic.
This book shows Little Bear making new relationships and modeling good childhood behavior: being a friend, helping, etc.
I can’t say I loved it, but I liked it, and it is a safe, gentle book where the animal faces express more than they should be able to.
