Bear and the Whisper of the Wind

With thoughtful text and delicately colored spreads made using colored pencil, pencil, and watercolor, Dubuc (1, 2, 3, Off to School!) explores the impulse to change circumstances. Bear lives in a lovely thatched cottage, enjoying a life that seems ideal: spending time with friends, sitting in a cozy chair, and eating strawberry pie. Then the wind changes, “and Bear senses that it is time to go.” He packs the things he wants to keep in a blue blanket and leaves his cottage behind. In the forest—a lovely, deep place with plentiful trees—Bear sometimes feels lonely, and sometimes feels free. He meets a friend and they enjoy time together, but he’s soon overtaken by the urge to continue on. At his lowest moment, when Bear doubts his choice, an event draws him into a new community, and contentment follows. Dubuc makes it easy to enter Bear’s desirous rationale, as he wonders “why he couldn’t stay in the cozy little house in the clearing” and “What if I have made a terrible mistake?” in a book about a character who listens carefully to his inner impulses, and acts on them. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)