A Visitor for Bear
Name of the Book: A Visitor for Bear
Author: Bonny Becker
Illustrator: Kady MacDonald Denton
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publisher’s Intended Audience: Ages 4-8
Summary: This is the story of a big bear that has lived a life of self imposed isolation. He has a large sign on his front door stating NO visitors allowed. One day a mouse gets into the house and wants to stay and visit. The bear is outraged and time and again asks the mouse to leave only to discover the mouse has gotten back inside. Eventually the mouse wins the day and the bear realizes that life alone isn’t much fun.
Literary elements at work in the story: The story is told by an observer narrator in a fairy tale like setting which makes it very welcoming for children. The animals involved take on human characteristics and by the end of the story you feel like you are observing people. The message is very real and it is easy to identify with the emotional perspective of each character
Perspective on gender, race, culture, economic, ability: This is a neutral story without any negative overtones that would offend anyone which renders it accessible to children of all backgrounds, cultures and races.
Scripture: Genesis 2.18
Theology: God created all of us to live in community.
Faith-talk questions:
- Have you ever told anyone you didn’t want to be their friend? How do you think they felt?
- Have you ever told your little brother or sister that they were not allowed in your room? How do you think they might have felt?
- Has there ever been a time when you didn’t have any friends? How did it feel?
Review prepared by Jim Collins, MACE, Entering Cohort Fall 2007
A Visitor for Bear by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.