Welcome Home, Bear

Starred review from May 1, 2015
Bear discovers there's no place like home. Tired of waking up every morning "in the same green forest under the same blue sky," Bear decides to try out some other animal homes. Bird's nest is too high. It's stuffy underground with Mole, too steep on Goat's cliff, and too deep with Octopus in the ocean. It's too cold where Polar Bear and the puffins live and too hot in Camel's desert; it's too rainy with Orangutan and too muddy with the hippos. Home is satisfying after all. This familiar trajectory and story pattern has been set in a stylized natural world, recognizable and yet unusual, starting with the blue-toned forest that spreads across the endpapers. Na has combined handmade painterly textures with digitally generated layers into imaginatively colored digital images that show well and suggest the various animals' distinctive habitats, each on a double-page spread. Bear is appealingly portrayed, with highly expressive body language. Some of his friends are, amusingly, quite surprised by his visit. The text is spare, usually only a sentence on each spread, but carefully and engagingly written. Listeners can't help but sympathize with Bear in his frustration and rejoice when he finds the place that's "just where he wanted to be." Pair this grand read-aloud with Na's Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit (2010) for preschool natural-history awareness. (Picture book. 2-5)

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May 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 1-Na's books cover topics of great interest to young children: babies, bedtime, seasons. Here, he explores the conundrum surrounding home-whether to select the stimulation of the new or the comfort of familiarity. As the story opens, Bear is bored with "the same green forest under the same blue sky." His subsequent globetrotting provides viewers with glimpses at the variety of animal habitats. But Bird's nest is too high, and Mole's tunnels are too stuffy. While this plot is familiar to adults, even they will want to revisit these pages. Na combines handmade and digital processes to create exciting layers of color, texture, and pattern. His polar bear is not white but a subtle building of unexpected hues and designs. Contrast adds interest, as when the blistering yellow of the desert sands (under the pink camel!) yields to the refreshing blue-greens of the rainforest. The artist plays with perspective-showing the dizzying vertical drop from Goat's cliffside home-and effect, as the ink from the surprised octopus spreads through the underwater world to cover Bear's face. Even the text is in motion, following the curve of the tree or descent of the raindrops. The discomfort on Bear's face is comical as he experiences each new indignity, but as the shadows lengthen, he "[knows] just where he [wants]to be." Respecting his audience, Na allows readers to name that place and draw their own conclusions. VERDICT While successfully capturing the comforts of home, this story's pleasing visuals feed the wanderlust impulse as well.-Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

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