From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2—Hare loves bears and wants to catch one. He gets a copy of
The Best Book of Bear Hunting and starts following the necessary steps. Bring a friend ("Choose one that looks much fatter than you!"), gather the right equipment, and begin trailing the bear. Watch for footprints and listen for sounds. Hare's friend Rumbly Rabbit questions the wisdom of the entire endeavor, but the two follow the instructions word for word. After a while they come face to face with a cub that growls, "I'm hungry!" That's bad news for rabbits, but suddenly the bear's mama calls him for dinner and he runs home. The two rabbits turn to the last page of the book, which informs them that bears love to eat rabbits. That causes them to scamper on home themselves. The pictures are large and clear. The rabbits look soft and cuddly, as do the bears. The background is lush and green, and the woods are full of blooming flowers. It's all very cheerful, but it's never clear why Hare has such a fixation on catching a bear. Despite the endearing illustrations, this book is not a first purchase.—
Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Children will be way ahead of Freedman’s animal protagonists, who set out on a hunt for a “scary, hairy bear” in this clever book-within-a-book. Kids will see the warnings that the too-hasty hare skips past. Hare is a bear fan; his home is covered in bear drawings, and he consults a rhyming book called The Best Book of Bear Hunting, a wonderfully tattered-looking tome, loaded with brown-and-white illustrations. Hare and his friend Rumbly Rabbit take the huge guidebook with them as they look for signs of bears. Tension increases as the two find tracks, see scratches, and, finally, hear the rumble of a bear’s hungry tummy. Both exciting and funny, this lively tale ends with a wonderful hare’s-breadth escape. Preschool-Grade 2. --Connie Fletcher
