Cat Rabbit, The Library of Bears, Berbay Publishing, January 2025 40 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781763571815
This is very unique and captivating picture book with a sweet story about dreams coming true – in the end.
Softie nervously awaits their time to be borrowed from the bear library. There are dozens of bears available for borrowing, and it seems that everyone else has had a chance to leave the library, except for Softie. Softie loves hearing about the adventures that take place when bears get borrowed, and dreams of one day having those same types of experiences.
But just as with many life experiences, sometimes when we get the thing we really want, it doesn’t meet our expectations. Softie is finally borrowed by KB, which is great! But not all of their activities are as pleasant as Softie has hoped for. A little bit of kindness and communication solve Softie’s problems, and together with KB, they make some truly great memories.
The peek-a-boo in the front cover will draw young readers to engage with this book from the very start, but the real hero are the images. From endpaper to endpaper. Each page features photographs of hand-crafted teddy bears and other props that are set up in adorable storytelling scenes. It appears that the items in the images have been crafted from mostly from felt and thread. My personal favourite was the sticky tape dispenser, but also the library paraphernalia. This is definitely one that readers could go back to several times in order to gaze on every page.
For librarians, even though this is another children’s book about bears (is anyone keeping count of the score?), this book looks very different from many other picture books. There is often discussion about building collections with diversity for children. This book offers aesthetic diversity and might just inspire some creative soul to pick up a needle and thread.
Reviewed by Cherie Bell