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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Stayton Public Library | E DUMONT | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | J ILLUST Dumont, J. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
An emotionally stirring book about kindness and friendship
Life isn't easy for a bear. Not when he has to sleep on the sidewalk among cardboard boxes and old clothes. Not when he lives in a city full of people who are repulsed by him. Not when he's hungry and homeless. But one day a young girl smiles at the bear, and he realizes that maybe there is something that could make life a bit easier -- a friend.
This poignant, heartwarming tale will move readers of all ages and inspire them to be more compassionate and empathetic towards others.
Author Notes
Jean-Francois Dumont is a French author and illustrator who has created many stories for children, including The Chickens Build a Wall (Eerdmans) and A Blue So Blue (Sterling), winner of the 2004 Prix Saint-Exupery, an award given yearly to the best illustrated picture book in France.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In a more somber allegory than his previous books, Dumont (The Sheep Go on Strike) meditates on homelessness, as seen from the perspective of a hulking brown bear in a human city. "I don't know how I got here," the bear begins. "All I know is that one morning I woke up here, on this street, and I haven't left it since." Wearing a tattered coat, scarf, and hat, the bear sits against a brick wall in a shelter of cardboard boxes and newspapers. Encounters with passersby don't go well-a doorman calls the police, and a butcher chases the bear with a knife. The city's bright colors only heighten the bear's loneliness and invisibility, and Dumont hits at human prejudice from multiple angles, whether it's the plentitude of food the bear sees in shop windows or the way citizens wrinkle their noses as they walk past. A girl who sees worth in the bear offers a moment of brightness, though Dumont resists a tidy happy ending. As a literal vision of the way society often dehumanizes the homeless, it's sure to be a conversation starter. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
I dont know how I got hereAll I know is that one morning I woke up here, on this street, and I havent left it since. Those words are spoken by a bear who lives in a nest of cardboard and newspaper set against a building on a city street. The bear goes on to describe his challenges: hunger (Finding something to eat hasnt been very easy, even though theres no shortage of food!), the apathy of most passersby (People no longer pay attention to me), and inadvertently inciting fear in others (Apparently, bears do not communicate well with people). The bears life changes when a girl sees him for what he really isYou look like a teddy bearand begins to visit him daily. The painterly art features off-kilter perspectives (the girl is first introduced as two shoes at the base of her shadow)exactly right for a story about dislocation. Nudged to mentally equate an object of childhood affection with the plight of a homeless person (although Dumont never uses the term), readers may well close the book understanding that the idea of a bear in the city is as preposterous as the idea of a homeless person in a land of plenty. nell beram (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A sensitive portrait of a lonely, homelessbear, sort of. The hulking narrator, swaddled in a heavy coat so that only a bear's head and hairy but human hands and feet are visible, has no name, no history, no memories. "At first, I didn't know that I was a bear. But when I tried to speak to this little lady who was passing by, and I saw her reaction, I started to understand." That reaction, of fear changing to outright hostility, leads to the bear's being chased down the street, thrown out of a store, forced to pick through garbage cans for food, and left to huddle amid piles of cardboard and newspapers, ignored by everyone who passes. Until, that is, a child stops to comment frankly that he smells bad but looks like a "teddy bear," later comes back for a hug despite a parental talking-to, and on following mornings waves as she goes by on her way to school. That bit of contact is enough to lighten his spirit: "I may only be a bear lost in the city, but I am a teddy bear. And that's no small thing!" Dumont portrays the "bear," the urban setting, and the human connection with idealized tidiness, but there is food for both thought and discussion here. A naked appeal to sentimentbut also to sympathy. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
All I know is that one morning I woke up here, on this street, and I haven't left it since. Bear lives in a collection of cardboard boxes, his coat is worn and patched, and when he gazes longingly through a bakery window, he is chased away. Quietly, steadily, Dumont draws out this analogy to homelessness, until, at the end, Bear is befriended by a cautious but caring little girl. While conceptually, the book has potential as a conversation starter about homelessness, perhaps practically, there are a number of distractions. Is bear disliked because he is a bear, or disliked because he is homeless, or disliked because he is a homeless bear? Matters are further complicated when the little girl refers to him as a teddy bear. Other statements are confusing: I may only be a bear lost in the city, but I am a teddy bear. And that's no small thing! The text size is rather difficult to see, depending on the background, but the illustrations are vivid, nearly impressionistic, and certainly illicit empathy for this forlorn, unassuming character so obviously in need of and deserving comfort.--Grant, Sarah Copyright 2016 Booklist