The Bear Who Shared

"[B]eing a wise bear, Norris knew that plorringes were the best fruit of all." Norris also knows that good things are worth waiting for, so he rests under the plorringe tree in the perfect spot to acquire the globular fruit when it falls. But Norris isn't the only one with an interest in the juicy treat: mouse Violet and raccoon Tulip scamper up the plorringe tree. They sniff, listen to, and hug the plorringe, and they are about to have a lick when it falls off the tree, landing with a "whomp!" on Norris's head. Readers who recognize Norris's teddy bear nature in his pensive gaze and lumbering snooze beneath the tree won't be surprised when, without hesitation, he carefully doles out sections of the "delicious, sun-kissed, soft-as-cotton-candy plorringe" to Violet and Tulip ("Norris was wise. And he was also kind"), who become his friends. Rayner's scraggly ink-outlined animals, colored with bold blocks of paint, easily communicate a traveled but salient lesson about patience and generosity—although readers may be dismayed to find no plorringes in stock at the grocery store. Ages 3–5. (Mar.)