Children Literature Book Review

Minarik, Else Holmelund. Little Bear’s Visit. New York: Harper Trophy, 1961.

Characters: Little Bear; Grandmother Bear; Grandfather Bear; Mother Bear; Father Bear
Setting: Grandparent’s house
Theme: Family Relations
Genre: Fiction
Golden quote: “He liked to put on Grandfather’s big hat and say’ “Look at me!” and he liked Grandmother’s cooking very, very, much. “ He had some bread and jam, cake and cookies, milk and honey and an apple.
Summary: Little Bear goes to visit his grandparents and they both tell him stories about lost robins, Grandfather tells him a story about a goblin that lost his shoes and then Little Bear eats his Grandmother fresh made cookies and bread with milk and honey.
Audience: Children ages 4 to 8 years old, upper and lower elementary school readers.
Curriculum ties: Demonstrate comprehension of second-grade reading materials across the curriculum, including drawing simple conclusions, classifying ideas and things, identifying sequence, and retelling directions and information from informational and functional reading materials.
Awards: 1962 Caldecott Honor Book; 1963 ALA Notable Children’s Book;
Personal response: This book would be great read for young girls and boys ages 4-8 years old that are working in making connections as a way to improve their reading comprehension. The readers can make text to self-connections because most children ages 4-8 years old visit their grandparents like Little Bear. This book can help readers make predictions and will learn to retell or summarize the chapter a great book to make the picture book transition to chapter books.

I love the little bear books. They were some of the first books I learned to read on my own. I had the entire series and my favorite has always been the story where little bear makes a special hat and goes to the moon. The illustrations are just as wonderful as the stories themselves. ( )