Different woodland critters gather around a hibernating bear for warmth while trying not to wake him up! A little mouse’s cold creates a problem for all of the animals. ( )

I love this book. There is a rolling cadence with easy repitition at the beginning. The end is a little surprising, but totally fits with the nature of bears. I especially like how the font changes to fit the mood of the words and phrases.

I have the board book which works great with my little one. ( )

In my opinion this a great book to read to children who have just started reading. This book has a lot of repetition, and patterns. All of the animals in the book use the same line, “I wish I could snuggle up with that big, soft, warm bear,” and the hare responds the same way every time, “You many come in, but don’t wake up the bear.” The characters in this book were animals, and they all took on characteristics of real animals. The bear looked like a bear, and the fox looked like a fox, and so on. The pictures, go along with the story, and really make it look like each animal is freezing and needs the bear.
The central message in this book is to look before you leap. As cliché as that might be, the animals were all so cautious not to wake up the bear, but did they know what was going to happen if the bear did wake up? Even though the bear woke up and let out a loud roar, he had no intentions of hurting the animals, but the animals did not know this and ran away. ( )

My 3 year old son loves this book, but I think its lame. I find the best children book rhyme and this one doesn't. There's also some weird unnecessary pauses when each animal announces its cold. I don't get it. To each their own, I just don't like it much. ( )

This was a pretty simple story and I wasn't terribly impressed by the creativity, but small children that like bears might have liked it. ( )