With this bright, rhyming picture book, parents and teachers can easily and naturally start talking with young children about genealogy and extended family. A young bear narrator introduces her grandma, grandpa, uncle, auntie, mommy, daddy, sister, brother, and cousins, and describes all the special things they do. Each double-page spread sports a boldly lettered, short phrase (e.g., Taste the fish my uncle brings) and a brilliantly colored, well-designed scene (the uncle fishing in a stream). At the end of the book, all the family members and their respective talents show up at a birthday party for the newest member of the family. The last spread is a family tree--a portrait of the whole family sitting on different branches of a tree. The watercolor, pen-and-ink, and crayon illustrations are bright and busy, just like this bear family. (Reviewed September 15, 1999)

A simple rhyming text and appealing illustrations will capture the very youngest of children, despite a rather innocuous title. A family of bears goes about their work: a grandmother bakes bread, a grandfather makes pottery, a father gardens, a mother sews, and so on. The narrator describes each in terms of the relationship—brother, sister, aunt, etc.—and each activity in terms of tactile experience: "Touch the plums/my sister picks/Taste the bowl/my brother licks." The pictures are boldly colored, with an effervescent, whimsical line, as the bears cook, prepare, and make music for, it turns out, the baby's birthday. Cats, birds, mice, and squirrels populate the indoor and outdoor scenes as wiggly grace notes, and the bears' pointy faces and large fuzzy bodies are reassuringly cozy. (Picture book. 2-6)

PreS-Gr 1-Another winning story from the author and illustrator of Bear in a Square (1998) and Bear on a Bike (1999, both Barefoot). In simple rhyming couplets, a bear describes each of his relatives, all of whom are in the midst of an activity: "Smell the bread my grandma bakes/Touch the bowls my grandpa makes." Not until the end of the tale do readers discover that each family member is preparing for the bear's younger sibling's first birthday party. Large, cheerfully colored illustrations in pen and ink, watercolor, and crayon depict a happy extended family working and coming together to celebrate a special day. The endpapers display the results of the bears' endeavors and the last double-page spread shows an actual "Family Tree" with the relatives perched on the branches. An entertaining book that may be helpful when explaining familial relationships to young children, and suitable for reading aloud or for beginning readers.-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.