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Eat Like a Bear

Eat Like a Bear
by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Henry Holt, 2013.  Unpaged.  Picture Book

     Eat Like a Bear lies right on the cusp between picture book and informational text with sterling attributes of each. Sayre's free verse text is filled with internal rhyme, assonance, and alliteration making each simple-seeming statement memorable and visual. "Leaping trout? None about./ Bushes? Bare. No berries there." Sayre's literary skill and vast knowledge of the natural world is well matched by Steve Jenkins' cut paper collage illustrations.  Young readers will follow this bear through the seasons of the year from April when he/she emerges from hibernation looking for something to eat, to the pre-hibernation September and October gorging on berries and pine nuts (an excellent source of fat-adding nutrition, as we learn). Such a terrific book - a great read-aloud or read-alone.

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