Everything In Its Time: Finding Spring by Carin Berger

THE FOREST WAS GROWING COLD.

MAMA SAID SOON IT WOULD BE TIME TO SLEEP.

BUT ALL MAURICE COULD THINK ABOUT WAS HIS FIRST SPRING.

Everyone says that Spring will be something really special.

But Mama says he has to lie down and hibernate first.

How can little Maurice sleep when all he can think about is this wonderful thing called Spring?

Like a kid on Christmas Eve, Maurice can't sleep. Mama Bear snores on, but her cub steals outside to see if Spring has come yet.

It hasn't. At least, everything looks the same, and Squirrel and Robin and the rest all say it's going to be quite a while before he sees Spring.

Maurice wanders through the forest, noting the changing smell of the wind and windblown leaves falling all around him. But then something else falls from above.

MAURICE FELT AN ICY STING ON HIS NOSE.

A BEAUTIFUL CRYSTAL LANDED ON HIS PAW.

SPRING?

Maurice climbs the big hill for a better view, and strangely, the crystals are everywhere in the air and covering the ground. It's beautiful! This must be the something special everyone told him was coming. The little cub scoops up a ball of snow, wraps it in his red scarf, and sets off back to the den to show his Spring to Mama, looking like a little Santa with his pack.

But Mama is sleeping too deeply to wake, and little Maurice himself suddenly feels very tired. Putting his snowball bundle beside him, he snuggles up beside Mama and sleeps, too.

After a long sleep, Maurice wakes up with Mama.

"I BROUGHT YOU SOME SPRING!" MAURICE ANNOUNCED.

But Maurice's snowball is gone! Has he missed Spring?

Not in Carin Berger's Finding Spring (HarperCollins, 2015), when Mama and Maurice head outside to see what spring has done to their forest. The white snow is all gone, birds are busy, and buds are flowering all over the big hill.

AT LAST, HERE IT WAS!

With a literary nod to Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day and Raymond Briggs' The Snowman, Carin Berger concentrates on the coming of spring, saving the best--her gorgeous cut-paper collage art--for the beginning of spring. Berger's use of ephemera--scraps of script-filled handwritten notes, newsprint, bits of books, fabric, ticket stubs, and cut strips of of art paper--gives her illustrations a three-dimensional weight, whether picturing the tall, mossy-trunked trees of the forest, the variety of cut-out snowflakes, or the fields full of spring flowers. Even the youngest preschoolers will know that a snowflake is not a sign of spring and will giggle at Maurice's naivete' as he wraps his snowball to keep for Mama.

With shelves full of books about the cycle of the seasons and the glories of spring, this one is a standout. "Exceptional, exhilarating artwork perfectly suited for a story about anticipation, discovery and joy," says Kirkus Reviews.

Hold the Upgrades! Big Bear's Big Boat by Eve Bunting

Big Bear is moving on up! He's outgrown his beloved little red boat, passed it on to his little brother, and is putting the finishing touches on his new boat, a blue beauty of a rowboat with plenty of leg room for a growing bear. But just as he's ready to launch it into Huckleberry Lake, he meets up with a critic.

"THAT'S A VERY FINE BOAT," SAID BEAVER. "BUT A BIG BOAT LIKE THAT NEEDS A MAST."

"MAYBE YOU'RE RIGHT," BIG BEAR SAID.

But no sooner has Big Bear added a rather bent birch tree trunk and rigged a raggedy sail, than Otter swims by with another idea.

"ALL BIG BOATS HAVE A TOP DECK SO YOU CAN WATCH THE SUN SET INTO THE LAKE AND THE MOON RISE OVER IT."

Half-heartedly, Big Bear nails some irregularly-sized boards across the gunwales. But then Blue Heron soars past, with yet another suggestion

"ALL BIG BOATS HAVE A CABIN."

Dutifully, Big Bear builds a makeshift lean-to cabin and erects in on the stern. He steps back and eyes his construction with a critical appraisal.

"WHAT AN UGLY BIG BOAT I'VE MADE. THE MAST LEANS OVER, THE DECK SLANTS,AND THE CABIN IS HIGGLEDY-PGGLEDY.

THIS BOAT IS NOT MY DREAM."

Big Bear's beautiful blue boat, once so trim and shipshape, has become a design disaster, with the look (like the camel)of being designed by a committee.

"First to thine own self be true," is the theme of noted author Eve Bunting's Big Bear's Big Boat (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). Although it's good to be open to ideas from others, sometimes less is more, especially in the case of unsolicited advice. Bunting's forthcoming little cautionary tale puts a lot of wisdom into its simple story, while Nancy Carpenter's illustrations, done in an appealing 1950s retro style, add to the beauty of this well-built, not too-fancy, just right story.

Seriously Seeking St. Nick: I've Seen Santa by David Bedford

It was Christmas Eve and Little Bear was looking forward to seeing Santa.

"Does Santa visit bears all over the world?" he asked Big Bear.

"Yes," said Big Bear. "He goes to every house."

"He might not have time to come here." said Little Bear. "And then I won't have any presents."

Little Bear is warned that Santa will surely come when he is asleep, but he is too worried about all the technical details to close his eyes. Just as he begins to doze, he hears suspicious sounds from downstairs. "Glug, Glug! Munch, Munch!" Investigating in the dark, he sees a large, rounded shape in a red cap--but it is his dad, caught snitching Santa's snacks!

"Big Bear! That's Santa's milk!!"

"I only wanted a sip before I went to bed," Big Bear explained.

"If Santa's as greedy as you are," said Mama Bear, "he really will be too big to fit down the chimney."

Now Little Bear has something else to worry about. Big Bear agrees to sack out with Little Bear in the living room and help him wait for St. Nick. Again, just as the two slip toward sleep, a shadowy shape, one hand in a stocking, is spotted. Can it be Santa? No, it's Mama Bear, who explains her presence a bit lamely:

"I'm giving you both a present from ME! What are YOU doing?"

Weary parents trying to outwait wakeful and watchful kids on Christmas Eve will get more than a few chuckles out of David Bedford's new board book edition of I've Seen Santa! (Tiger Tales, 2009), warmly illustrated by the notable artist Tim Warnes, in which Big Bear and Mama Bear are caught attempting to play Santa. But the author gets the last laugh when the two parents fall asleep with Little Bear during the vigil, and although NO ONE sees Santa, Santa arrives, enjoys what remains of his blueberry pie, and certainly sees THEM!