Wakey Wakey, Big Brown Bear! by Tracey Corderoy

Illustrated by: Rachel Swirles

Series: N/A

Published: Parragon Books, 2013

Edition: Paperback

Length: 24 pages

Genre: Children’s Fiction, Picture Book

Where Did I Get It? Kindly received for review as part of the Parragon BookBuddies scheme

Summary (from Amazon): It’s Autumn and time for Big Brown Bear to have a nice sleep. He won’t wake up until Winter. But he’s not happy. He’ll miss palying in the crunchy leaves, and splashing in rain puddles, and watching the snow fall. Luckily his friends are on hand to help – they’ll make sure Big Brown Bear doesn’t miss a thing! An enchanting seasonal story about friendship and fun.

Opening Line(s):

Autumn was coming. Bright berries shone like jewels, leaves danced to the ground, and it was time for Big Brown Bear’s long sleep.

~

My Review:  A truly delightful story about the changing of the seasons and friendship, Wakey Wakey, Big Brown Bear! is a lovely addition to our book collection.

Tori (aged 4) is studying nocturnal animals at school and as a lot of those creatures also hibernate she quickly grasped the concept of Big Brown Bear going to sleep for the winter time. She felt sad for him when he was talking about all the things he never got to do because he was sleeping.

The other animal’s favourite activities through autumn and winter inspired all sorts of talk about Tori’s favourite things to do and things she would like to try. Their thoughtfulness also got Tori thinking about what she would do for Big Brown Bear and how she could help him.

The ending is a sweet and gentle lesson about how it is nice to repay favours in kind and makes for a lovely ending.

The illustrations are simple and charming and both Tori and Arthur enjoyed looking at them and talking about what they could see heppening on each page. Arthur particularly liked Big Brown Bear’s blanket and said it looked cuddly and warm.

However, Arthur found it a bit wordy and lost interest a few times so I think, aged 2.5 years, he is a little young for this book just yet but hopefully come next Autumn he will love it as much as Tori does now.

My Rating: 4/5*