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Bear is trying to do lots of fun things, but they'd all be much more fun if only his friend, Bee, would join in. Bee, however, has other ideas and is just too busy to roll down hills or climb up trees. When Bee is finished and wants to play with Bear, Bear is trying to sleep!
I had slightly higher expectations of this book than it delivered, maybe because it has praise by Maurice Sendak on the front cover, and any association with the man behind [[Where the Wild Things are Are by Maurice Sendak|Where The Wild Things Are]] is always going to give to you high hopes. Sadly, it didn't live up to them for me, being quite old fashioned in both design and text. It's a tried and tested theme however, the idea that things are more fun if you do them with your friends, and that's always a nice idea to explore with children. I liked its repetition too, the way in which the same things happen over and over, which set up the premise nicely and gave a more rewarding ending to the book.
It would have been nice to have a little more text in this story, and it felt a little caught in limbo between a book for very young readers and slightly older preschoolers. That being said, it was popular with my son who is a bit picky about the books we read, so maybe I am being a bit harsh and the reason it feels a little old fashioned to me is simply that 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'! It's a nice idea for a story, which is very simply told and this could work one way or the other dependant upon your taste.