A Best Friend for Bear
by Petr Horáček; illus. by the author
Preschool    Candlewick    32 pp.
6/24    9781536233995    $17.99

Black Bear is lonely and sets out into the forest to find a friend. When he runs into Brown Bear, also in search of a pal, they join forces. They look everywhere, but “it was difficult to find a friend.” They decide to practice their observation skills by playing hide-and-seek, enjoying themselves and the game immensely. But then Brown Bear hides so well that Black Bear can’t find him, and he worries that he has lost Brown Bear forever. When the two are reunited, they finally realize that they have found a friend in each other and set off together happily, paw in paw. Horáček’s mixed-media illustrations in rich forest-y colors bring out the bears’ sweet, naive personalities and capture their varying emotions as the day unfolds. Young readers will of course catch on long before the protagonists do that the extended friend-search is unnecessary, but that superior knowledge (and the bears’ cluelessness) is part of the story’s appeal.

From the July/August 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.