Bears in the Night Provides Minimal Fright

When my brother Nathan was little, one of his favorite books was Stan and Jan Berenstain's The Bears' Picnic, in which Papa Bear leads his wife and son on a meandering hunt for the perfect picnic spot, so I thought of him when I spotted Bears in the Night at a recent library sale. Ultimately, this book has less in common with the Papa-Bear-Acts-Like-a-Dope stories than the Small-Bear-Has-an-Independent-Adventure stories. This is a Bright and Early book, designed for the most inexperienced of readers, and as such it is in league with the likes of Old Hat, New Hat and Inside, Outside, Upside-Down.

Instead of the simple verse of The Bears' Picnic, Bears in the Night is a series of directions that build upon each other, much like progressive songs such as the Irish Rovers' The Rattlin' Bog. It's a good way for children to learn the orienting words "up," "down," "at," "through," "between," "around," "over," "under," "in" and "out".

I find the illustrations somewhat perplexing because we get two glimpses of Mama Bear, who looks just like Mama from the vast majority of Berenstain Bears books, but she has six children - sextuplets by the looks of it - and there is no trace of Papa Bear. So I'm not sure just who this family is in relation to the one we usually see; maybe it's Mama's twin sister and six nephews... The bears' expressive faces, peeking out through a dark bluish atmosphere, tell more than the words, as they creep outside smugly, only to have their wide-eyed faces turn terrified as a loud 'WHOOOOOO" fills the air.

When I showed it to Nathan, he sarcastically commented, "This book has quite the compelling plot!" Okay, so an 18-year-old can breeze through it in all of about a minute and might not find the bears' climactic encounter with an owl on Spook Hill - "They don't call it Spook Hill for nothin'!" Nathan piped up - very impressive. But he would've eaten this right up 13 years ago...

Bears in the Night lacks the distinctive characters found in most of these books, and its plot so simplistic that no verbs are needed. There's not a scrap of dialogue; the entire narrative consists of phrases like "out the window" and "through the woods". But if you're looking for a spooky story for a tiny tot, this might just fit the bill, as it builds suspense without being too scary. So grab a night-light and read Bears in the Night!