Dark and Stormy Night: Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson

In the deep dark woods,
By the Strawberry Vale,
A big bear lumbers
Down a small crooked trail.

It's a darkling evening, cold, cold, cold, and a bear with a growling tummy needs to be in his warm snug lair. But when Bear turns back for home, things just don't feel right:

Bear shakes and he shivers
As a storm starts to howl.
Bear mutters, "What's that?
Are there spooks on the prowl?"

Bear huddles in the partial shelter of a leafless tree and he has to admit

Bear feels scared.

Back in Bear's warm, firelit cave, the cookies are waiting and the tea kettle is steaming, but his friends are growing worried. "There's a storm," cries Hare. "Shouldn't Bear be home?" Bundling up against the wild weather, toting a lantern, they set out to search, Owl and Wren looking high, and the rest looking low, until at last their "Ho, Bear, are you there?" falls on his ears, and the rescue party greets the lost Bear with their own bear hugs.

Later that night,
All clustered in a heap,
Bear spins stories
While his friends fall asleep...

...And Bear feels safe.

Karma Wilson's and Jane Chapman's newest, Bear Feels Scared, arrives just in time for the approaching scary season. Not a Halloween book per se, this latest in the series provides a slightly spooky setting along with a comforting message about fear of the dark and stormy night. Pair this one with Jonathan Allen's "I'm Not Scared!": for a pair of stories that put the old darkness dragon to rest.