We *heart* Greg Foley’s bear

Anyone who has run across one of the three elegantly minimalist titles by children’s author, Greg Foley, must surely be a fan. The colour palette is serene, the images simple yet communicate a range of emotions so effectively, and the narratives… well, they’re just brilliant.

Today I stayed home with Calvin as his tummy had been upset. He was full or beans and bounce, so we bundled up for the well-below-zero weather, he hopped on his tricycle, and we wound our way through and over piles of snow to the public library. (Am I glad the trike is a Kettrick, with big wheels that mounted the snow mounds like an off road vehicle!)

At the library, as I returned our eight books, Calvin staked out a spot in the picture book stacks. By the time I caught up with him, he’d taken two chairs off a pile and set them up for us. We hunted for a book on a whale — found one, but it doesn’t match up to the excellent one from Bobo about the whale and the snail — dinosaurs, mostly disappointing until we found one about a tadpole with an inner T-rex — and then we came across the gem.

We had previously borrowed “Thank you bear” from the library, and Calvin immediately recognized the title character in “Don’t Worry Bear,” by Greg Foley. And the story and intent, a.k.a. this is for friends who can’t see each other everyday but are always there… well, it appealed to both of us immensely.

Since returning home, we read the book more than a dozen times, including as Calvin’s choice for the final bedtime story.