by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 09, 2010

"Don't Wake Up the Bear!" is a fun story about the animals in a forest.  The drawings are some where between realism and fantasy - depicting all the species accurately, while still adding facial expressions that suggest their feelings. It's a cold wintry day as the book opens, with a bear leaving a trail of footprints past the snow-covered pine trees. And as the bear sleeps in his cozy cave, what the other animals feel most is envy!

A silver hare in the woods with her ears are getting cold - and she decides to snuggle up in the bear's cave (since the bear is already asleep). Soon they're visited by a cold badger, who forlornly asks if he can join them. "You may come in," the hare whispers, "But don't wake up the bear!"

The story's pattern is obvious, but it's still fun to see the new animals arrive. (There's a fox with cold legs, and a squirrel with cold toes.) In fact, the pattern is part of the book's charm - especially if you're reading it out loud to children. Like a good bedtime story, it's all about sleeping (in a warm and cozy place) - so the repetition has a lulling effect. But it also increases the dramatic tension each time the rabbit repeats her warning - "Don't wake up the bear..."

The last animal to join the party is a very cold mouse - and then out in the quiet woods, "snowflakes drifted down, softly, softly down..." There's a pleasant peacefulness, but inevitably there's a complication. The mouse - curled up in the bear's ear - begins sniffing and sniffling. The hare warns her, and then the squirrel and the fox - don't wake up the bear! But unfortunately, the mouse has to sneeze, and it wakes up the grumbling bear - who is also very hungry!

The bear growls, the mouse freezes, and all the animals scatter. "Run little mouse," shout the squirrel and the fox...  "He's hungry!" But in the end there's nothing to be scared about, since the book ends the way it began. The bear tramps through the snow, leaving a trail of giant bear tracks. And the illustration on the last page shows him eating berries from a tree!

The story was written by Marjorie Dennis Murray, and she did a good job of creating the mood of a soft, cozy bear cave. (At the beginning of the book, she even thanks his brother, a theoretical physicist, who calculated the amount of energy required to wake a bear.) The illustrations are by Patricia Wittmann, and they effectively deliver the rest of the tension. If someone keeps telling you not to wake a bear - you'll eventually start wondering if you're sleeping in the right cave!

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