Bear's Story

Claire Freedman (Author) Claire Freedman is the author of over 100 books for young readers. She tried various genres before discovering a passion for children's books. She is best-known for her award-winning 'Underpants' series, which has sold over 2 million copies to date and has been published in 21 languages.Alison Friend (Illustrator) Alison Friend studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University and after graduating spent the next three years working as an apprentice stonemason high up on Nottingham's historic buildings. After a few years chipping away at stone, she met her husband and they moved to America where she began painting funny animal pictures for greetings cards. It was then she realised she should be illustrating books for children.Alison now lives in the beautiful Lake District. In her spare time she enjoys walking her border collie, Blue, swimming in the lakes (when its warm!) and falling asleep during really good films!

Bear loves reading his storybook but it becomes so worn that the pages come loose and fly away, leaving him nothing to read. So, he sits down to write a story himself. Unable to think of an idea. he goes out for inspiration, for a back-scratch. a swim, and to climb a tree. Nothing works but he meets and helps some of his forest friends. Later back home he remember them and creates a simple adventure story. An extra leaf unfolds to present Bear's story which he reads to his friends. They love it, especially the bits where they feature, and decide to go off together and have some more adventures so that Bear can write more stories for them all. Soft watercolour pictures bring this book to life by illustrating each aspect of the story faithfully. There is variety in the page design, with some full page spreads and small cameos where appropriate. The font is traditional and quite small but always clear and readable. This would make an excellent read-aloud for young children and is just the right length and mood for a bedtime story.