A Story for Bear

I'm a sucker for two kinds of books: books about reading or books, and books about animals. So when I saw A Story for Bear, written by Dennis Haseley and illustrated by Jim LaMarche I knew I had to read it. This combines my two favorite things, in wonderful ways.

When a bear finds an abandoned letter in the woods he take it home with him because it seems magical. The words don't make sense to him of course but he has a sense of peace when he looks at them. After a long winter of hibernating and staring at the paper, he wanders out into the spring and stumbles upon a cabin. At a chair right at the edge of the woods, sits a woman reading. The bear creeps closer to see the magic symbols over her shoulder. She notices him and over several days lures him to her. And then she starts reading. The bear doesn't understand the story but he feels the same sense of peace as he had with the paper. He returns for more and more stories. As the summer wears on he becomes a regular for story time. But summer ends. One day he returns to find the woman not in her chair. Instead she has left him a stack of books. Slowly he carries each one, gently, to his cave for the winter. And the hope that she will return in the spring.

It doesn't get much sweeter than this story. Haseley tells a story that made me both cry with happiness and at the same time feel completely at peace. Like the bear, I wasn't sure why it made me feel this way but it did. I love the description of him carefully carrying each of the brown, red, green, and black covered books back to his den. Haseley describes how the stories (or at least the way the woman sounds while telling them) stays with him during the day. How he feels that sense of peace when he can hear her speaking in her head. The simple line "For my Bear" brought me instantly to happy tears. Haseley makes us care about both the woman and the bear. And of course the stories. I found myself wanting to be that woman.

LaMarche creates beautiful landscapes and sweet characters with acrylics and colored pencils. He creates a bear that is somewhat realistic but also no where near threatening. I loved the cover image of the woman with her knees pulled up in the chair, reading to her attentive bear. But the natural landscapes that LaMarche creates are just stunning. With almost impressionistic lines he creates a beautiful stream, gorgeous pine trees, and of course a very cute bear. The emotions that he can create with only a few lines are wonderful. The images of the bear sitting surrounded by his books, is one of the most lovely images of the book. And something I would gladly buy a print of to hang on my wall. This book has beauty and emotions in both the story and the pictures. It is a book that celebrates nature and celebrates reading. It's my type of book.

The Tin Forest

As part of this new blog I've been picking up children's books randomly. Some of them have been okay, some of them have been terrible, and some have been completely and utterly charming. The Tin Forest by Helen Ward falls under the latter. This is one of the cutest and most interesting books that I've never heard of. I picked it up because of the illustration on the cover and brought it home to read.

The story is about a little old man who lives in the middle of a junk pit. This junk, mostly metal and mechanical rubbish stretches for miles and miles. Every day the man tries to haul away and dispose of the trash. Every night the little old man dreams of a forest filled with birds and plants and animals. And every morning he realizes that he is still surrounded by junk. So one day he decides to build himself a forest, entirely out of the scrap metal lying around. He builds trees and flowers out of tin. He builds birds and cats and other creature out of the metal. It is a forest of sorts. But real birds find the tin forest. They come and settle in the metal trees. They bring seeds and the seeds bring flowers. Trees grow. Slowly a real forest starts to grow in the tin forest. The growing forest brings in new animals. Until in the end, the little old man has the forest of his dreams.

I remember the first time I reread The Lorax as an adult and realized the powerful environmental message the book told, that had been hidden to me as child. The Tin Forest feels very much the same way to me. The environmental message along with the "follow your dreams" message are incredibly strong in this book but it doesn't overshadow the story. This is a gentle story that tells about loneliness and how struggle will make things right. The little man is beautifully illustrated to show his initial sadness, particularly when he tries to clear away the trash. The illustrations by Wayne Anderson are detailed and precise, particularly in the beginning. Perhaps it was just my interpretation but they appear to get softer and more rounded as the book goes on and the real forest grows. The words and the images blend well together and the reader actually feels like they are there in the rubbish pile and then in the tin forest.

I am shocked that I have never heard of this book particularly with the number of excellent reviews that it has gotten. The book was even turned into a play by Puppetcraft, a puppet theater company out of the UK. But the story is poignent especially now with the growing amounts of mechanical trash that we toss out each year. And the beautiful story reminds us that even in our growing dependence on electronic materials we are still always in love with nature and the forest. The tin forest is a beautiful place but it is even more beautiful with real trees and real animals. This book was a wonderful find and I look forward to adding it to my growing collection.