Father Bear Comes Home

Father Bear Comes Home by Else Holmelund Minarik. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak (Canada) - (US)
An I CAN READ Book, Little Bear series, book 2

Pages: 62
Ages: 5+
Finished: Jan. 26, 2010
First Published: 1959
Genre: children, easy reader
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

"Little Bear," said Mother Bear, "can you be my fisherman?"

Acquired: Bought and own a copy.

Reason for Reading: My son read aloud to me.

Comments: As per any Little Bear book this is divided into four chapters each containing a stand alone story and yet they all flow together nicely. In the first story. Owl and Little Bear catch a fish for dinner then sit on a big log and pretend they are out on the ocean catching large and unusual fish until Mother finally comes looking for them and her fish. In the second story, Father Bear comes home but Little Bear imagines what if he brought home a mermaid and then as he meets each of his friends they follow along each expecting to meet the mermaid Father has brought home. In the third story Father Bear is quietly reading his paper and Little Bear has the hiccups, all his friends have ideas how to get rid of them but they don't work, then Father Bear roars asking what all the noise is about. Finally, the book comes full circle as Father, Mother and Little Bear go down to the river for a picnic and Little Bear and his friends wonder if there is a mermaid in the river and imagine what she would be like.

An enchanting book in the series, wonderful art by Sendak. My son is very familiar with these characters from the cartoon and has read a couple of the books now and continues to enjoy reading the stories, which are just at the perfect level for his reading abilities at the moment. There are occasional full pages of text but still plenty of half pages of text shared with a picture. A classic! 5/5