When I came upon this stanza for the first time, I knew immediately that I would have a great time reading this book and making animals speak, walk on tiptoes and, in the bear’s case, gnarl, snarl, roar and so on.Īnd so I did. While her mouse is such a tiny creature, that even the words describing her have to be small. Her bear does not just growl – he gnarls and snarls, roars and rumbles, jumps and stomps, growls and grumbles. Karma Wilson charms her readers into truly seeing the forest, warming by the fire and participating into a midnight animal party, for her words have smell, sound and taste. Will the great bear wake up in the end and scare them away? “ But the bear snores on”, goes the refrain of the story. As each animal arrives, more food appears as well, and soon there is a stew in the cauldron, and dancing around the fire. The choice of animals is refreshingly unconventional: there are so many interesting animals in the forest that seldom make it into books. There is a hare and a badger, followed by a gopher, a mole, a raven and a wren.

Soon more animals are to join the mouse, attracted by the friendly light. There it is a cold and frosty night only a small fire made by an industrious mouse glimmers in the great bear’s den.

The words of this book wrap around us like the fluffy snow blanket on the bear’s den and give a feeling of comfort, as the book takes me and my adventure buddy on an enchanting journey to a winter forest for the hundredth time.

Now the choice would be more difficult to make, but I still hold it in high regard and consider it to be one of the best books for the youngest readers. For of all the books we collected for Budster over the first year, Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson was without doubt my favourite. I could have called this blog post Liska’s Favourite Books, and it would have been just as fair.

Bear snores on animals