Busy Bea [Library Binding]

Nancy Poydar (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

Bea is too busy to keep track of her own belongings but she always knows just where things are for her grandmother.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1-Little Bea makes life difficult for herself with her forgetfulness. She doesn't mean to be careless-she is just easily distracted and always busy. Lunchboxes, jackets, raincoats all get left behind as she hurries off to her next activity. Only her grandmother seems to be confident that Bea can learn to keep track of her things. When the child loses a new sweater that Grandma has knitted for her, she learns that the lost-and-found is the right place to look for it (and the rest of her missing belongings). One to four lines of text per page tell this slim story. Watercolor paintings in bright primary colors with lots of secondary color accents will assure readers that Bea's troubles are transient.
Ruth Semrau, formerly at Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 4-8. "Bea was always losing her belongings. It wasn't because she was careless. It was because she was such a busy person." After Bea loses her lunch box, jacket, raincoat, papa's umbrella, and the note that her mother writes to her teacher, Bea's exasperated mother wonders whether Bea would forget her ears if they weren't stuck to the sides of her head! But when Busy Bea finally slows down enough to find her school's lost-and-found, she recovers all of her lost belongings and amazes her mother. Only Bea's grandmother isn't surprised, since she has known all along that Bea is a great "finder." Poydar's soft and sunny watercolor illustrations charmingly capture the zest with which this African American child greets her world. Exuberant and with a flair for minor mishaps, Busy Bea is of the same tribe of little girls as Ramona the Pest. Welcome her story as a picture-book prelude or companion to the popular Cleary classic. Annie Ayres

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Library Binding: 32 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry; 1st edition (September 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689505922
• ISBN-13: 978-0689505928
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,519,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprising favorite, December 16, 2007

By 

Elisa's Mom (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Busy Bea (Library Binding)

I'm surprised no one has reviewed this book yet. I found this book on a reading list and borrowed it from the library, and it has become one of our routine nightly reads.

The story focuses on Bea, who is always forgetting things at school. Her grandmother, believing that Bea is more mindful than she seems, knits Bea a new sweater. Bea promptly loses her sweater, too. The sweater, however, is the impetus for her to search for all of the items she has lost.

What is fun about this book is that your child can search for the lost item on each page. The relationship between Bea and her grandmother, and the importance her grandmother holds in Bea's life, is evident through the story. It's rare in children's books to see such a relationship being illustrated, without being spelled out.