Please Bear's Birthday by Avril Lethbridge, Diana Mather and Mary-Ann Mackenzie
| Please Bear's Birthday by Avril Lethbridge, Diana Mather and Mary-Ann Mackenzie | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A book to teach children the importance of good manners through nice and naughty bears. Bookbag found it just a little bit too much of a blunt instrument! | |
| Buy? No | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 36 | Date: May 2011 |
| Publisher: Maverick Arts Publishing | |
| ISBN: 978-1848860674 | |
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Please Bear is having a birthday party and all the bears, both the nice ones and the naughty ones, are invited. In a delightful sing-song rhyme we see Please Bear writing his invitations, the preparations for the party, and the party itself. Some bears are very good, helping other bears if they are a little shy or helping mummy Bear to set the table. Unfortunately, other bears are not so good. They boast, they scream, their greedy and downright unreasonable.
I loved the illustrations in this book. Despite their fluorescent colours the bears all have a cuddly look – even the ones who wouldn't be quite so pleasant to be with. I was less certain about the text. To begin with I doubt that I would ever give the child a book with the subtitle ‘A Good Manners Book’. It seems a little insulting! The book is designed to teach children the importance of good manners through nice and naughty bears, but they don't seem to be any rewards for being nice, or consequences for being naughty. I felt as though manners were being imposed on the reader rather than presented as something which the child would naturally choose to do.
Backed by discussion about the consequences of the bears behaviour the book will be educational but I doubt that it's one to which the child would naturally return. For this reason it is probably better borrowed than bought. I'd still like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
For a good story about the importance of manners we can recommend The Scallywags by David Melling and you might also appreciate Say Hello Like This by Mary Murphy.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Please Bear's Birthday by Avril Lethbridge, Diana Mather and Mary-Ann Mackenzie at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Please Bear's Birthday by Avril Lethbridge, Diana Mather and Mary-Ann Mackenzie at Amazon.com.
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