Baby Bear Eats the Night

by Anthony Pearson, Bonnie Leick (Illustrator)

Overview

Mama Bear put Baby Bear down to sleep. Their cave was warm, and Baby Bear’s bed was soft. Baby Bear should’ve gone right to sleep, but he couldn’t…

Baby Bear is afraid of the dark, so he decides the best thing to do is eat the night! But as Baby Bear starts eating and the night begins to disappear, he learns that the other forest creatures need the night, and maybe he does, too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761461036
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 6 Years

About the Author

Author Anthony Pearson lives in Marietta, Georgia. He has been writing his ideas, dreams, and stories as long as he can remember.

As a school counselor and child therapist, Anthony has seen children overcome incredible life challenges through creative solutions.  He believes that both children and grown-ups have the ability to rise above almost anything.

As a writer, Anthony is inspired by his students at work, his friends and family at home, and this big, amazing world.

Anthony is married to Liz, the father of Ella and Cora, and has a dog named Sibly.

Illustrator Bonnie Leick received her BFA in Film/Character animation from the California Institute of Art and Design. She has worked on several books and animated projects for children.

Editorial Reviews

Mixed messages and a main character who comes off as less a frightened youngster than a self-absorbed twit spoil Pearson's debut. The fault lies chiefly (but not wholly) with the illustrations. Scared by noises in the nighttime woods, Baby Bear slips out of his den. He climbs a tall tree, rips down the starry sky like a curtain and proceeds to eat it. He callously brushes off the protests of a field mouse, a firefly and a bat in his determination to eradicate the night. He loses his fear of the dark when his mother appeals to self-interest by explaining that the dark helps bears survive, too. Despite being capable of pulling down the sky, he is portrayed by Leick not as a powerful figure or, considering his motives, even an anxious one, but as a chubby-cheeked teddy bear who exudes smug self-satisfaction as he continues to chew away despite the pleas of other creatures. Ultimately Baby Bear belches out the sky in what would be a comical climax were it not depicted as a few almost unnoticeable gassy wisps issuing from his mouth and disappearing into the page's gutter. Not only is Baby Bear's loss of fear too sudden to be believable, the art pays no mind to his inner emotional landscape and turns what is essentially a tale of mythic proportions into a cozy bit of feel-good ephemera. (Picture book. 5-7)

Kirkus Reviews