Bear and Bird: The stars and other stories

This is a perfect book for newly confident readers. It contains four very satisfying stories and full colour illustrations with just the right amount of text on each page.

The Spoon - Bear and Bird have had a falling out over a spoon so Bear writes a letter seeking a new best friend and he folds it into a lake and floats it out over the lake. Little does he know Bird finds the letter and so their correspondence begins. Eventually the letter writers decide to meet but what is going on? Bear sits at one table. Bird sits at a different table in the cafe. Both of them wait and wait for their new friend. The waiter brings over a delicious bowl of porridge and as you may have guessed the only way to eat this is with a spoon!

The Cake - Bear finds a yummy cake in a box hidden behind some bushes. Without thinking he gobbles up the whole thing but then he realises someone made this cake and now it is all gone. No problem Bear can make a new cake. Oh no - Bear has never made a cake in his life. Do carrots, nuts, honey, worms, flies, dung and bananas belong in a cake? Then along comes Bird. She made the cake and she has bought everything for a perfect picnic but oh no - there is no cake!  This story reminded me of Frog is Frog.

The other two stories are The Rock (it is really a rock?) and The Stars. 

These humorous, touching, imaginative stories are matched by illustrations with the same qualities. Naïve-looking, soft-colored flat backgrounds focus attention on the black-outlined animals, especially the textured, stuffy-like bear and simplified bluebird, both expressive and huggable. Friendship at its best. Kirkus star review

You could pair this book with:

I previously talked about the illustrator Jarvis and I mentioned the first book from this sweet beginner series. I think all three of these books (the next one is coming) should be added to all Primary school and preschool library collections. 

The third book featuring the friends Bird and Bear will be released late in 2024.

I have talked about Unlikely Friends in previous posts - click the label at the bottom of this post.