Customer Reviews

A Chair For Baby Bear

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The good: the pictures are cute, really really cute.

The not-so-good: As the bear family walks to town to find a new chair, each page during their journey includes Little Bear getting an inspiration for a type of chair he might like, after which he whines/begs his parents for that kind of chair. Each time, Mama says "we'll see." That's all well and good. But each page also includes Papa interjecting some kind of warning about whatever behavior Little Bear is engaged in, like "stop jumping or you'll fall" or some other such. I just found it very jarring and irrelevant to the plot. Like the author just felt she had to have Papa Bear say *something*.

Also, I mean, I won't lose any sleep over it, but when they depart the store without having purchased a chair, I found it totally unbelievable that Little Bear would've accepted that outcome without a whimper. A tantrum would've ensued for sure.

The book is fine, really, but there are so so so many better books out there for this age group.

I have always wanted to find books that turn stories around, meaning, that something was learned. The thing is, someone else takes the original story and turns it around. Case in point is A Chair for Baby Bear, which tells us about the three bears and their search for a new chair for Baby Bear. Baby Bear, otherwise known as Alexander, asks his parents for a chair to replace the one that Goldilocks destroyed.

So, they go into Bear Town, with Baby Bear playing the whole way. He gets involved in playing along the way; first he acts like he's an archer and wants a Robin Hood chair, then, he says he wants a Pirate chair. Finally, he wants a king's chair. They go into town and enter a chair store which has a lot of different chairs.

He does the Goldilocks routine: he sits in a chair and complains that it's either "too scratchy" or "too scary", of just "too big". Mama Bear decides it's time to go home. Little Bear, Alexander, that is, is disappointed and tired all the way home. Once they reach home, they find a package at the front door. It's addressed to "Baby Bear", and no longer is he tired. Quite the opposite, he is excited, as he rips off the paper. Inside the wrapping is a perfect "Little Red Bear Chair" with a note from, .......guess who? You will have to read the story to find out what was written on the note that was attached to the chair, and who it was from. The message is "just right!"