Recently I read a bear, a man, and a donut van. Since I both enjoyed the book and found it well done, I sought out the other books in this series.
Both a bear, a bee, and a honey tree (2022) and a bear, a fish, and a fishy wish (2024) are written by Daniel Bernstrom and illustrated by Brandon James Scott. Both show an impressive unity of vision between writer and illustrator–I would have assumed one person did both elements if I read this without knowing–and both share a similar and pleasing structure. Both of these earlier books start with a single character (a bear) and limited words, introduce another (a bee, a fish), also with very limited words. Both build slowly. Both rhyme. Both move from the slow and fairly (clearly intentional) interaction into much larger, wilder interaction…until the action explodes into joyous and unexpected chaos.
I recommend all books in this series. They read well aloud, and are sure to charm. They allow kids to anticipate, but also surprise them.
Good stuff.
