The Curious Cares of Bears

In a buoyant follow-up to The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits, Florian uses rhymes that bound along merrily to chart the things that bears get up to, both realistic (splashing around in a creek) and whimsical (going mountain biking). As the verse moves through the seasons (“In autumn, there’s playing in leaves all day long,/ then building a campfire and sharing a song”), Sánchez uses scribbly lines and bursts of bright color to fill many of the book’s scenes with a rambunctious ursine energy—in one, fish go hurtling into the air as a pair of bears cannonball into the water, and a chain of bears form a conga line a few pages later, “partying heartily, dancing all night;/ howling and growling until morning light.” A brief detour into the world of winter hibernation slows things down a bit as Florian makes his way toward spring. The bubbly rhymes are made to be read aloud, and the bears’ humanlike antics should tickle readers’ imaginations, too. Ages 4–8. [em]Author’s agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. Illustrator’s agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Bookmark Literary. (Aug.) [/em]