ALA Booklist
(Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)
Poor Bear. All he wants to do is go to sleep. But his neighbor Duck is wide awake and wants company. Will Bear play cards? Read stories? Make smoothies? Be sympathetic to a stubbed beak? Bear and Duck play out a back-and-forth scenario of approach and rebuff, until the tables are turned: Duck falls asleep but Bear is now wide awake. The story is reliant on the visual cues of Davies' comic illustrations, so that the exchange between the characters is funny rather than intolerable. Duck is so small compared to Bear, yet his larger-than-life (and possibly caffeine-induced?) energy overwhelms his much larger neighbor. Bear becomes more and more irritable with each interruption from Duck, yet maintains a strained cuddliness is always holding his teensy bedtime bunny in his massive paw. (Eagle-eyed readers will notice that the bunny is a silent participant in the action, often reflecting Bear's feelings.) While not a typical bedtime battle of wills, parents and kids will recognize the power struggle between Duck and Bear and pick sides accordingly.
Horn Book
Bear is just trying to get some sleep, but his persistent, sleepless neighbor, Duck, is having none of it ("I'm bored!...Wanna play cards?....Watch a movie?...Start a band?"). Although Mo Willems's Pigeon is the posturing Duck's obvious antecedent, this story--complete with switching-places ending and quite funny illustrations of wisenheimer Duck and his aggrieved victim--succeeds on its own wacky merits.
School Library Journal
(Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)
PreS-Gr 1 In this familiar-sounding story, an exhausted animal tries to sleep as his overly friendly neighbor pays him repeated visits. Late one night, Duck is bored and decides Bear will entertain him, but grumpy Bear rejects his suggestions to watch movies and make smoothies, sending the bird home with a "Goodnight already." Duck turns up twice more to interrupt his neighbor's sleep and is dismissed by an increasingly irate Bear, who, in the end, is left wide awake, while Duck falls fast asleep next door. The premise of this story is not very original, and even the ending won't be a surprise. Bear comes across as a grouchy curmudgeon, while Duck is oblivious and annoying, and their dialogue is stilted. The illustrations, however, are charming, with solid color backgrounds highlighting moods, yellow for Duck and blue-gray for Bear, as well as the characters themselves, who stand out against the saturated backdrops. Little details add color to each page, from Bear's pink stuffed animal to Duck's red electric guitar. For libraries that have Bonny Becker's A Visitor for Bear (2012) and A Bedtime for Bear (2010, both Candlewick), this may not be a first purchase, but the fresh, funny art makes it a worthy consideration. Marian McLeod, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, CT