Little Bear's Trousers - Softcover

PreSchool-Grade 1 One morning, Little Bear wakes to find his trousers missing, so he goes from one stuffed-animal friend to another in search of them. Each time, he's one step behind, finding that his clothing has been used and passed along: Sailor tried them as sails for his boat, Rabbit as a hat, with plenty of room for his ears, etc. Finally, Little Bear re trieves his trousers from Bramwell Brown, who has converted them to a double-barreled icing bag to decorate the cake he's baked. All share the cake in celebration of the trousers' return. This is a playful extension of the imaginative game of taking an object and finding various uncustomary uses. It's an idea that works better visually than it does in words, and the pictures here stand out in their near photo-realism and their dimen sionality. Those are real toys on the page, fiber by fiber, but at the same time, they look quite reasonably capable of moving and talking. It's just the visual represen tation of the life that small children can breathe into their toys, and the close-up perspective adds to the sense of realism. The illustrations are the strength of the book; the text repeats information found in them, belaboring the point, and it has its precious moments. It's fun to look at, especially with those pleasantly vibrant colors. Karen Litton, Confederation Centre Public Library, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hissey's textured illustrations, so lifelike that they resemble hand-tinted photographs, are as remarkable here as in her Old Bear. All the toy characters are back, helping Little Bear locate lost trousers, which everyone has used differently: Camel as hump-warmers, Rabbit as a holey ski hat, Dog as a two-bone bone-holder, among others. Little Bear despairs but finds that his trousers are now Bramwell Brown's icing baghe's frosting a cake. The cake is dubbedrather arbitrarily, it seemsTrousers Day Cake, and Little Bear is soothed. That forgiveably weak ending is offset by the snug household scenes the friends inhabit; the rooms aren't scaled down, so there's a perfectly delightful depiction of Rabbit skiing down a slick bannister on tongue depressors. From the nubby terry-cloth towel to the pearl stitches of a knit hat and shiny chrome faucets, Hissey's world makes readers believe that Old Bear could be just around the next corner. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.