The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb
The Everywhere Bear is an important member of Class One. He enjoys a wide range of activities with the children in his class, such as bus rides and burgers, football and music. One day, when it's the new boy, Matt's, turn to bring the Everywhere Bear back to school Matt sees a cat on the way to school, and he bends over to give it a cuddle. Poor old Bear falls out of Matt's bag and into a puddle. This is the start of the Bear's most exciting (and terrifying!) adventure yet!
| The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: Those of us with small children are well aware of the pressures of taking care of the class bear! Relive the 'where's the bear gone?' moments in this funny rhyming story! | |
| Buy? yes | Borrow? yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: February 2017 |
| Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781447280736 | |
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I have to be honest, I have a dread of the class bear coming to our house. It always feels like a test of the parents, rather than a treat for the children. There's the continual worry that the Bear will somehow get lost, thus upsetting not just your own child, but a whole classroom full of children! And these bears always seem to travel with a diary of some sort or other, where you're expected to document Bear's exciting weekend activities, and peer pressure sees you making trips out to an art gallery in order to have something suitable to write about! With Bear getting lost in this book, parents are immediately plunged into the nightmare scenario of what happens next, and for this particular bear, a great deal happens to him!
Poor old Bear gets washed down the drains, caught in a fishing net, thrown in the rubbish, dropped by a seagull, and thoroughly battered and bruised. I have to say, my little boy was a bit on edge during this part of the story. He was quite anxious for the Bear, and I have to admit I had my own concerns about how on earth he'd ever find his way back to Class One! Don't worry, there's a happy ending, culminating in a trip to the local library for the class, and the discovery of poor old Everywhere Bear in the lost property.
The story itself rattles along with its excellent rhymes and exciting pace. It has lots of elements that children love, such as the long rhyming list of every child in the class, and then the details of what they've all individually done with the Bear. There's also the wonderful recount, at the end, of everywhere that the Everywhere Bear has been. The illustrations support the story perfectly too, with sweet children (including one little girl in a wheelchair) and the soft and cuddly-looking bear. The pictures are colourful, and interesting to look at. I felt both happy and sad seeing the local library, depicted with the very realistic 'save our library' signs outside, and I really love the picture inside the library of all of Class One extremely happy and busy, all with different favourite books to read.
This is a pleasure to read aloud, and perhaps if the class bear comes to visit you, you can get a picture of him or her reading this class bear story, to put in the diary!
Further reading suggestion: For more about bears, try The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield or for another delightful Julia Donaldson rhyme, I would highly recommend The Detective Dog by Julia Donaldson and Sara Ogilvie.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb at Amazon.com.
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