Bear Brothers: If You Were a Panda Bear by Wendell and Florence Minor

IF YOU WERE A PANDA BEAR,
GUESS WHAT YOU WOULD WEAR?
A BLACK AND WHITE SUIT
AND EYE PATCHES. HOW CUTE!

But when it comes to bears, panda is just one way to go.

The brotherhood of bears contains all sorts of adaptations, and  places to hang out.  Sloth bears actually do, hang out, that is. using their long, curved claws to hang from branches high in trees while they munch on fruit.

Grizzlies are tall and wide, and black bear cubs climb trees to hide, and spectacled bears look like they are wearing horn-rimmed glasses, but that's not all.

IF YOU WERE A SUNBEAR,
YOU WOULD HAVE A L-O-O-O-O-O-G TONGUE.
TO HELP YOU GET HONEY.
CAREFUL! DON'T GET STUNG!

The bear clan contains a wide variety of shapes and sizes and colorations, from the moon bear of Asia, wearing his pale crescent moon bib to the polar bear whose pale coat matches his snow and ice habitat, all of them are all shown in charmingly realistic paintings in Wendell and Florence Minor's If You Were a Panda Bear (HarperCollins, 2013). With the bouncy rhyming couplets and full- and double-page illustrations of the bears in their wild settings, this book has the appeal of a picture book for the youngest naturalists, even bringing the whole bear bunch home in their final spread, a collection of plush Teddies from pandas to polar bear toys, all ready for a bedtime read. But the authors also add that nonfiction staple, the appendix, "Bear Fun Facts," which include fascinating bear trivia about each species, such as the fact that fiction's famous Paddington Bear, shipped to Paddington Station from Peru, was a spectacled bear, the only bear native to South America.

Wendell and Florence Minor are also the co-authors of the similarly themed If You Were a Penguin, (HarperCollins, 2008) for a pairing of books perfect for prep for a zoo trip or just for a nature-themed bedtime storytime.