There's a Bear on My Chair

by Ross Collins, Ross Collins (Illustrator)

Overview

Poor Mouse! A bear has settled in his favorite chair, and that chair just isn’t big enough for two. Mouse tries all kinds of tactics to move pesky Bear, but nothing works. Once Mouse has gone, Bear gets up and walks home. But what’s that? Is that a mouse in Bear’s house?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536224061
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Series:	Ross Collins' Mouse and Bear Stories
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.50(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Ross Collins is a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and has illustrated more than one hundred books for children and written a few, too. He lives in Scotland, where he likes walking in the Scottish glens with his dog, Hugo, who is an idiot, and his partner, Jacqui, who is not.

Editorial Reviews

A playful portrait of impotent rage, Collins’s (The Elephantom) rhyming story looks at what happens when a problem is just too big to tackle...Collins’s drawings win laughs with confident, swooping lines and witty details (the silver tips on the collar of the bear’s Elvis shirt), and his sparkling verse has the ring of a nursery classic.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Collins' pencil-and-digital illustrations are completely interwoven with the text, enlarging and enhancing the tale with over-the-top humor and expressive body language. The mouse jumps out of a box (in that underwear), offers a juicy pear, glares from atop a ladder, and more. The bear matches these goofy antics as he reads a newspaper, does an Elvis impression, takes a snooze, and checks his cellphone. Silly, laugh-out-loud fun.
—Kirkus Reviews

...delightful, rhyme-filled read that's sure to remind parents of classic Dr. Seuss.
—Pregnancy & Newborn

From the Publisher

07/01/2016
PreS-Gr 2—Mouse has a problem—someone is on his chair! In a miniature red-and-white sweater, Mouse complains to readers, "There's a bear on my chair. He is so big, it's hard to share," and with a friendly wave, viewers meet a polar bear. Mouse tries various ways to get the bear off his chair, such as "a nasty glare," "a pear," and "a scare," and, finally, in a fit of "despair," Mouse leaves. Bear, finding himself alone, returns to his home of snow and ice to announce, "Hey! There's a mouse in my house." The delightful rhyme and rhythm make this title great fun to read aloud. The text takes up one side of each spread, emphasizing words that appear in red font to convey the escalating emotions. Expressive digital illustrations are placed on single-color backgrounds that help focus readers' attention on the characters' dilemmas. VERDICT A must-purchase and instant classic for storytime and one-on-one sharing. Sure to become a favorite.—Karen Ginman, BookOps: The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library

School Library Journal

2016-05-04
A bear has settled himself in a mouse's chair, and nothing will move him.The big polar bear is certainly not unaware that he has usurped the chair, but he seems to be feeling no guilt about it. The sweater-clad mouse speaks directly to readers, airing complaints, making outrageous threats, offering bribes, and throwing tantrums. It even acknowledges that the bear's endangered status calls for some extra care, but the situation is untenable. All the while, the bear is silently self-absorbed. In desperation, the mouse leaves for parts unknown. When the bear finally ambles away, he heads home to his igloo only to find that mouse asleep in his bed. Now the tale has turned, and the bear at last speaks: one, perplexed line. The mouse's one-sided diatribe appears in very large print with key words emphasized in red. Every second line ends in a rhyme with the contested "chair," including "glare," "lair," "hair," even "leisure wear," and (of course) "underwear." Collins' pencil-and-digital illustrations are completely interwoven with the text, enlarging and enhancing the tale with over-the-top humor and expressive body language. The mouse jumps out of a box (in that underwear), offers a juicy pear, glares from atop a ladder, and more. The bear matches these goofy antics as he reads a newspaper, does an Elvis impression, takes a snooze, and checks his cellphone.Silly, laugh-out-loud fun. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews