View source for A Letter for Bear by David Lucas

{{infobox2
|title=A Letter for Bear
|sort=Letter for Bear, A
|author=David Lucas
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1909263130
|pages=32
|publisher=Flying Eye Books
|date=November 2013
|aznuk=1909263133
|aznus=1909263133
|cover=1909263133
|website=http://davidlucas.org.uk/
|summary=Beautiful illustrations and a sweet story about a lonely bear.
}}
Bear is a postman.  He's a very good postman and always delivers all his letters on time.  Yet when he's finished his work for the day he goes back alone to his cave, and makes himself some soup, and he wonders what it would be like to receive a letter.

I'm a sucker for stories about bears.  I think it's an addiction that began long ago with my mum and dad reading me Winnie the Pooh and doing all the funny voices for all the characters.  Anyway, since then I'm drawn towards books about bears.  This one caught my eye since this rather sweet little bear is on the front cover carrying a large satchel and wearing a smart red peaked cap!  I love that Bear is a postman.  It seems the right kind of job for him to be doing.  But I wasn't entirely prepared for the sad turn the story would take!

Although Bear is very good at his job, he is also very lonely.  He never gets any post himself, and no one ever notices him.  Then one day when he's out delivering a gust of wind blows all the letters high into the air.  Bear finds that all the addresses are smudged, so that day he has to knock on everyone's door to try and get the letters to the right animals.  He sees all the happy families at each house and he goes home that night lonelier than ever.  Poor Bear!  Still, all is not lost as Bear decides to write letters to everyone inviting them to a party at his house.  He is waiting rather a long time, and almost gives up on anyone coming, but finally they all arrive and they have a wonderful party together.  And of course afterwards he receives a whole bag full of letters just for him, to say thank you!

The illustrations in the book are delightful.  The colours are limited, mostly reds, blues, browns and whites, but the style is very appealing.  I think my only criticism of the artwork, and of the book generally, is that although the text feels very sad as you read of poor Bear being so lonely, Bear's expression does not reflect this as he still has his little smile throughout.  It would have been good to have seen a range of expressions on Bear's face, to help little ones understand the emotions being described, but I'm wondering if perhaps Bear is more like a teddy bear, and the fixed smile is just how he has been made?  Still, that doesn't quite fit with his explorations outdoors in all weathers delivering the post, and the other animals he delivers too look real enough.

In relation to those other animals, there is a rather nice end page with them all on and their names beside them.  I'm not sure I've ever read a children's picture book with an ermine and a ptarmigan and a waxwing as characters!  It's lovely to look at these unusual creatures and talk about them when you get to the end of the story.

This is a gentle tale, easy to read for bedtimes and nice to share over again.

For more fun with bears try [[Don't Worry Douglas by David Melling]] or [[The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland]] or [[Baggy Brown by Mick Inkpen]].  It's not about bears, but we also enjoyed [[This is My Rock by David Lucas]].

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