Oppositional Couple :What's Up, Bear? A Book About Opposites by Frieda Wishinsky

YES! WE'RE GOING ON A TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY!

DOESN'T THE CITY LOOK BIG AND BEAUTIFUL, BEAR?

NO! IT'S BIG AND SCARY, SOPHIE!

Sophie and Bear could not be more different. Sophie can't wait for her family trip to the Big Apple. Bear tries to hide under a blankie. Sophie loves going up, up, up, in the big jet. For Bear, the only good part of the trip is when the plane is at last down.

Sophie loves speeding cross town in the taxi--going fast. Bear prefers slow. Sophie dotes on the go-go subway train. Bear can't wait for it to stop. Stop!

Sophie waves a big hello! to the super-giant dino skeleton in the museum. Bear can’t wait to say goodbye! But Bear loyally hangs in there as Sophie traipses from one tourist attraction to the next – to the top of tall buildings, across those big bridges, exploring Central Park and, for Bear going from wet back to dry as he takes a dip in the lake. Sophie is over the moon, and Bear is, well, hiding under her sweater as much as possible.

And then, Sophie and her dad arrive a that BIG Manhattan toy story (you know which one that is), and Sophie is amazed at all the new bears. One of them is very big. Meanwhile,  Bear is feeling definitely small and old!

And then....Bear is forgotten in the excitement of that terrific toy store. Will Sophie remember him before it’s too late?

Bear has never, never, ever been a lost bear! Will he ever be found?

Frieda Wishinsky’s just-published What's Up, Bear?: A Book About Opposites (Owl Kids Books, 2012) puts an unlikely pair–exuberant Sophie and reticent Bear, into a setting which points up pairs of opposite concepts, twenty of them, in a quicky tour of New York City, in an outing just right for the preschool set. Sean L. Moore’s cartoon-style illustrations are full of motion and perspective while keeping the focus on the two characters. Publishers Weekly concurs, saying, ”Moore’s crisp digital cartoons capture both the duo’s fluctuating emotions and the energy of the city.”

Vive La Difference: No Two Alike by Keith Baker

NO TWO SNOWFLAKES ARE ALIKE.

ALMOST, ALMOST,

BUT NOT QUITE.

Two playful young birds frolic through a wintry landscape, superficially the same in its ubiquitous covering of white snow, but filled with things that are each unique within their similarity--nests, leaves, trees, forests, foxes, fences, even the two little playmates themselves.

AMONG US ALL! ARE WE THE SAME--JUST ALIKE?

Listening preschoolers will be chiming in with the rhyming response evoked all the way through the text, "Almost, almost, but not quite." in Keith Baker's No Two Alike (Beach Lane Books, 2011). A quietly humorous book, in which the two mischievous little birds play at making things different, knocking snow caps off of fence posts and pecking out snowflake patterns in brown oak leaves, their red plumage and jaunty mobility a standout difference in the sameness of the snowscape done up in digital media that somehow is both soothing and cozy.

But even the two protagonists have a difference in their plumage, as we see when two of their tail feathers float down, one all red, one with a telltale black spot at the base, almost, but not quite alike. Baker uses what appear to be photos of real objects, such as a red toboggan cap, set against the smooth whiteness of his winter woodland landscape, as he works in his simple but telling text into the theme of differences between things that are at root two of a kind.

A great book for those seasonal concept units dealing with snow and winter with a quiet message that there is order in our similarities and beauty in our differences. As Booklist's reviewer summarizes it all: "Baker’s seamless combination of well-worded rhymes, evocative landscapes, and playful protagonists make this a standout title for reading aloud, especially in winter."