Mr. Bear's New Baby

The latest installment in Gliori's ongoing adventures of Mr. Bear will be familiar to anyone who's spent a wakeful night with a newborn. Mr. Bear and his wife try everything to soothe their newest little one to sleep--feeding, patting, singing--but to no avail. The wailing continues as neighbors drop by offering a variety of cradles. ""How can someone so small make so much noise?"" wonders Mr. Bear, who by this time is ""feeling pretty close to crying himself."" Finally, Small Bear, awakened by the din, comes up with the winning suggestion: that they cuddle his new sister in ""a bedful of bears."" Gliori's warmly lit watercolors set a snug stage for this appealing family tale, and her eye for humorous detail is in evidence, from the honeybee mobile hanging over the new baby's crib to the parenting books that litter the floor at Mrs. Bear's bedside and the cotton diapers festooning the kitchen laundry lines. Preschoolers will find Gliori's domestic landscape as cozy as flannel sheets on a cold night. Ages 3-6. (Mar.)