Customer Reviews

Climb the Family Tree, Jesse Bear! (Jesse Bear Books)

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This book depicts an idyllic family reunion, replete with an assortment of colorful aunts, uncles, great-aunts, counsins, and grandparents, and loads of food for all of them to eat! Little Bear travels discovers his family roots, as he visits relatives young and old, and there's even a flashback of sorts as he looks through the family photo album and sees pictures of the past:

We hear tales of long ago:
Weddings by the tree,
THe day you raced to the hospital'
THe day you first saw me!

In fact, 'Climb the Fmaily Tree' is something of a photo album itself. There are framed full-page illustrations, soft and lovingly rendered by Bruce Degen ("Jembrry"), and the topmost edges of the pages sometimes have a yellowed cast to them. Degen's watercolor and ink pictures capture the bright clothes and shining personalities of the extended bear family, and his backgrounds are soft andtextured with color. The story, while decorated with traditional family motifs such as a huge picnic and loving relatives, also admits that disputes can happen (and can be resolved), and that the family flourished despite and because of individual differences.

"It feels so good to see them all--
Our family in one spot.
Some are different, some the same.
Some like to hug a lot!

There's also a fair amount of action, including a deft series of four vertical panels showing family members boating, taking a hayride, playing croquet, and playing hide-and-seek. For these reasons, the book feels deeper and more layered than some others I've read about family get-togethers. Ultimately,the book also conveys a kind of rite of passage, as young Jesse Bear symbolically becomes a full-fledged member of the family tree of traditions, memories, and stories:

Grandma has the trunk brought out
Of faded family clothes.
The cousins all dress up in thm
And for the pictures pose.

But the most exciting thing
That's special, just for me--
This is the year I'm old enough
To climb the family tree!

Just one more terrific book in the Jesse Bear series. The rhymes provide a wonderful tool for early readers.