A Bear and His Boy: A picture book review

A Bear and His Boy (2007) by Sean Bryan, illustrated by Tom Murphy

Unlike the first two books in this series, this one is unsurprisingly about a bear who wakes up with a child attached to his head instead of the other way around. Unfortunately for Zach (the Boy), the Bear (Mack) has no time for such frivolity as he immediately tells Zach:

“I’ve got no time to slack. I’m looking at my schedule, and it is jam-packed.”

Being stuck to Mack’s back, Zach has little choice but accompanying Mack on his myriad errands as he buys slacks, and accepts a plaque, among other things. The more he sees Mack running around, the more Zach knows he has to speak up. Finally, at the end of the book, Zach reminds the bear that there is more to life than errands and schedules. Sometimes you just need to take a moment to relax. No matter how busy you are. No matter who is attached to whom.

Like the previous installments in this series, the entire novel is written in rhyme which creates a lot of fun combinations throughout the story (flapjacks and slacks are my two favorites). Once again this story is just different enough to keep the premise fresh and unique.

The story again ends with a reference to a new character, this time Mack’s friend: A giraffe named Ned with a girl on his head which, I can only hope, means this dynamic duo will have a new installment out soon.

Layout Change

I might delete this post later but I just wanted my regular readers to know I’m tweaking the layout of this site. I’ve decided I’m not in love with all of the links in my sidebar because it’s getting unwieldy. I have created a new Linkage page that can better contain the growing list of sites I visit and blogs I read (including some cool writer’s sites and blogs!).

I will probably leave the links to Diane and Emma’s Gift Cottage, Diane and Emma’s Gift Cottage on Ebay, Diane and Emma’s Gift Cottage on Etsy but I think the rest of the links will be happier on a separate page where they can mingle and perhaps multiply. I plan on having both options on the site for the next couple of days while I see how it works, but I expect to be using only the Linkage page after Christmas.

While we’re on the subject, I’ve been very into Web Usability lately thanks to my Technology class at Pratt. If there is anything on the site that doesn’t work for you in terms of site layout or linkage, let me know so that I can work on making it better.