Bear With Me

by Noemi Vola

Overview

What do you do with a bear who won’t leave? When a bear comes to stay, no one expects him to stay too long! But his arrival changes everything, from sleeping to shopping to hanging out with friends. If even dinosaurs and math problems can’t drive him away, what are you supposed to do?

Featuring quirky, energetic illustrations, this amusing tale suggests we can learn to live with even the most unbearable company.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802855787
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	08/24/2021
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	6.67(w) x 9.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	AD700L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Noemi Vola has a degree in comics and illustration from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. The original edition of Bear with Me was exhibited at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair and the 2019 Bologna Book Fair. This book is her North American debut. Noemi lives in Italy. Visit her blog at noemivola.tumblr.co m or follow her on Instagram @volanoemi.

Editorial Reviews

08/09/2021

Vola’s North American debut features quirky b&w pencil and tempura art, following a narrator whose life is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a towering, smudgy-outlined inky black bear. Despite the narrator’s many signs protesting bears (“BEARS NOT WELCOME,” the mat in front of the cartoonishly fenced-in, isolated house reads), the ursine figure charges through the front door and immediately proceeds to wreak havoc. “Since he’s been here,/ things have changed,” one spread reads, showing the angry pale-skinned narrator struggling uphill with the bear on their bicycle on one page, and their skiff tipping as the heavy bear unbalances it on the other. Common activities such as eating, watching a movie, and hanging out with friends are all disturbed by the bear’s outsize presence. Though the lack of clear resolution may disappoint some readers, and the text employs an instance of fat-shaming in a lengthy name-calling passage, this picture book could satisfactorily serve as a metaphor for coexisting with anxiety, depression, or unwanted emotions. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews
“This book will likely resonate with readers living with their own bears.”

Booklist
“A final spread suggests everyone might have their own bear to contend with, but Vola leaves much unresolved (including the bear's affinity for butterflies), giving open-minded readers much to ponder.”

Publishers Weekly
“A metaphor for coexisting with anxiety, depression, or unwanted emotions.

From the Publisher

2021-06-29
An unnamed narrator describes the experience of an unwanted visitor that arrives in the form of a large black bear.

A bear enters a home and wreaks havoc. Politely asking him to leave; attempting to run away (even to another planet); and surrendering and offering to become his lunch: Nothing works. Sleeping, commonplace activities, and spending time with friends are disrupted and become challenging, since the bear “never leaves me alone.” The grayscale line drawings feature heavily saturated black paint for the bear, who dominates most spreads, and an exaggerated scale: Most of the time, the bear looms massively over everything but, in one illustration, is small enough to fit in a sink. The text also leans on hyperbole to make its point, describing the bear with “his super stupid fur” as “the very worst bear on the whole entire planet” and, in the next sentence, the most odious presence by using a series of 19 adjectives in a row (fat, naughty, party-pooping, and so forth). The book, an Italian import, presents the bear as a metaphor for troubling feelings; despair or grief are likely, though it’s never explicitly named. The story’s only resolution is a spread showing that many people have an unwanted bear to bear. All humans are depicted as White.

More concept piece than story, this book will likely resonate with readers living with their own bears. (Picture book. 4-10)

Kirkus Reviews