School Days! The New Bear at School by Carrie Weston

It's always exciting when there's a new kid in class, and Miss Cluck's class--Leticia, Maxwell, Fergus, and the mice gang--are all atwitter, especially when they hear that the new guy is a bear! Leticia hopes he's fluffy and pink like the one on her lunch box, Fergus imagines a Paddington in Wellingtons type, and Maxwell wishes for a funny, floppy bear with velvet paws.

But their fantasies vanish when the real Boris the grizzly cub arrives. Boris is no cute and cuddly fantasy bear. He's BIG, he's HAIRY, and he's definitely . . . SCARY! Poor over-sized Boris tries to fit into a schoolroom definitely designed for smaller animals, but as the day wears on, nothing goes well. He crumples his seat when he sits down and booms out his "One, two, three, coming ready or not," at game time, unaware that he is scaring the hair off his small classmates. Despite Miss Cluck's well-meaning interventions, Boris finds himself eating lunch all alone and sitting outside the story circle that afternoon.

By the time his classmates scamper out at the final bell, Boris is resigned to his fate as the big, bumbling class pariah that nobody will befriend. Sadly, barely holding back a sob, he plods along the path, falling far behind his chattering schoolmates as they plan their afternoon playtime. Then, as they pass through the woods, the happy crew suddenly find themselves surrounded by the neighborhood bullies, the intimidating rat pack. They are outnumbered, encircled, and overwhelmed. Whatever shall they do?

Just as big old Boris is about to trudge into view, the group realize that what they need is a big, hairy, scary--friend--maybe even one who is a grizzly bear. And they know just where to find him!

In Carrie Weston's brand-new book, New Bear At School, Tim Warne's gentle closing illustration of Miss Cluck's class, ready for story time, with Fergus, Leticia, and Maxwell settling down in Boris' furry lap, speaks volumes about the value of even unlikely friendships.