Welcome Home, Bear: A Book of Animal Habitats

by Il Sung Na

Overview

Follow Bear as he visits animal habitats around the world—and comes to appreciate his own home—in this new offering from the creator of A Book of Sleep and A Book of Babies.
 
Bear is tired of waking up every morning in the same green forest, so he decides to search for a new place to live. He visits the birds in the trees, a mole underground, a camel in the hot desert sand, puffins in the cold arctic snow . . . only to realize his own home is the perfect place for him after all. Welcome Home, Bear offers rich illustrations, bright colors, and a simple, spare text—all wrapped up in a beautiful, kid-friendly package. Readers meet animals in their habitats around the world—and return with Bear to the one place he is truly happy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385753753
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/07/2015
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	361,595
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD550L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Originally from South Korea, IL SUNG NA studied illustration at Kingston University in London. A Book of Sleep was his first picture book, followed by The Thingamabob; Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit; Hide & Seek; and A Book of Babies. To learn more about Il Sung Na and his work, please visit IlSungNa.com.

Editorial Reviews

Listeners can't help but sympathize with Bear in his frustration and rejoice when he finds the place that's ‘just where he wanted to be.’”
—Kirkus Reviews starred review

From the Publisher

05/01/2015
PreS-Gr 1—Na's books cover topics of great interest to young children: babies, bedtime, seasons. Here, he explores the conundrum surrounding home—whether to select the stimulation of the new or the comfort of familiarity. As the story opens, Bear is bored with "the same green forest under the same blue sky." His subsequent globetrotting provides viewers with glimpses at the variety of animal habitats. But Bird's nest is too high, and Mole's tunnels are too stuffy. While this plot is familiar to adults, even they will want to revisit these pages. Na combines handmade and digital processes to create exciting layers of color, texture, and pattern. His polar bear is not white but a subtle building of unexpected hues and designs. Contrast adds interest, as when the blistering yellow of the desert sands (under the pink camel!) yields to the refreshing blue-greens of the rainforest. The artist plays with perspective—showing the dizzying vertical drop from Goat's cliffside home—and effect, as the ink from the surprised octopus spreads through the underwater world to cover Bear's face. Even the text is in motion, following the curve of the tree or descent of the raindrops. The discomfort on Bear's face is comical as he experiences each new indignity, but as the shadows lengthen, he "[knows] just where he [wants]to be." Respecting his audience, Na allows readers to name that place and draw their own conclusions. VERDICT While successfully capturing the comforts of home, this story's pleasing visuals feed the wanderlust impulse as well.—Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

School Library Journal

★ 2015-04-15
Bear discovers there's no place like home. Tired of waking up every morning "in the same green forest under the same blue sky," Bear decides to try out some other animal homes. Bird's nest is too high. It's stuffy underground with Mole, too steep on Goat's cliff, and too deep with Octopus in the ocean. It's too cold where Polar Bear and the puffins live and too hot in Camel's desert; it's too rainy with Orangutan and too muddy with the hippos. Home is satisfying after all. This familiar trajectory and story pattern has been set in a stylized natural world, recognizable and yet unusual, starting with the blue-toned forest that spreads across the endpapers. Na has combined handmade painterly textures with digitally generated layers into imaginatively colored digital images that show well and suggest the various animals' distinctive habitats, each on a double-page spread. Bear is appealingly portrayed, with highly expressive body language. Some of his friends are, amusingly, quite surprised by his visit. The text is spare, usually only a sentence on each spread, but carefully and engagingly written. Listeners can't help but sympathize with Bear in his frustration and rejoice when he finds the place that's "just where he wanted to be." Pair this grand read-aloud with Na's Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit (2010) for preschool natural-history awareness. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews