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Bear Dreams by Elisha Cooper Greenwillow Books, 2006

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The story is no match for the pictures in Elisha Cooper's new picture book, Bear Dreams, but the pictures alone are well worth the price of admission. A bear cub doesn't want to hibernate and leaves his cave to play with the rabbits, geese, and moose that are still out and about. Bear races with the rabbits, wrestles with the moose, and flies with the geese (an odd and unexplained element). When the other animals need a rest, bear wants to keep going but eventually falls asleep and his parents take him back into the cave for his long winter's rest.
Cooper's signature watercolors are breathtaking: geese against the coral sky of afternoon, and the purple sky of evening; the austere beauties of the Far North are portrayed with subtlety and grace.
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