ONE Very Big Bear: A Picture Book

by Alice Brière-Haquet, Olivier Philipponneau (Illustrator), Raphaële Enjary (Illustrator)

Overview

Author Alice Brière-Haquet and illustrators Olivier Philipponneau and Raphaële Enjary’s One Very Big Bear is a funny “picture book for children who like a bit of a surprise when they are learning their numbers” (School Library Journal).
 
As far as he can tell, Bear is the biggest thing around. He might even be a giant! It’s not long before other smaller animals set him straight in this charmingly illustrated book about counting and relative size.
 
Together, two walruses, three foxes, and so on, are the same size as Bear, each teasing him for foolishly thinking that there is nothing bigger than he. When six sardines arrive to tell Bear that together, they are just as big as he is, Bear has had enough and gobbles them up for breakfast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419721175
Publisher:	Abrams Appleseed
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Alice Brière-Haquet is an author and a teacher. She has published many children’s books in French. She lives in France.
 
Olivier Philipponneau is a French illustrator who works and lives in Paris.
 
Raphaële Enjary is a graphic designer who lives and works in Paris.

Editorial Reviews

"An enjoyable read for younger readers."

— Booklist

"A picture book for children who like a bit of a surprise when they are learning their numbers."

— School Library Journal

"The closing scene... will leave readers giggling."

— Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2016-07-20
A counting book finds “ONE white bear” facing off against an increasing number of different creatures in a contest of size. With so many creative and interesting counting books available, a new endeavor in this genre must work hard to stand out from the crowd. This French import seems to run out of steam before it has barely begun. The illustrations are flat, two-color monoprints with stylized, hard-to-distinguish animal shapes. A large white bear stands glumly on an ice floe. “I’m very big!” he announces. “I’m almost a giant!” Two walruses swim up, challenging his size by standing one atop the other. This joke is repeated with three foxes (unlikely residents of an ice floe!), four sea lions, five penguins (even more unlikely, assuming the ice floe is in the Arctic), and six sardines, the last of which unsurprisingly are consumed by the bear on the last page. The goal is apparently to teach very simple addition: each vertical pile of animals is notated as an arithmetical equation, such as ONE + ONE + ONE, but the exercise abruptly concludes at six, not even bothering to get to 10. Numerical notation is not used, and this half-hearted, didactic attempt risks confusion rather than enlightenment. Lacking bounce and any real originality, this big bear falls flat on the ice. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews