ALICE & LUCY WILL WORK FOR BUNK BEDS

A pair of bear sisters who get along great, except when it comes to sharing a bed, work up a sweet plan to buy bunk beds—but things get messy along the way.

Sisters Lucy (larger, messy, loves jelly) and Alice (word nerd, likes plain peanut butter) are the best of friends, but their disagreement about foods they love causes a disaster when they take a job at a bakery to pay for their bunk beds. A bake-off goes horribly wrong, ruining an elaborate wedding cake—but these cubs are hardworking and smart. They come up with an alternate cake that ends up being a big hit. Illustrator Temairik's first solo book has a playful one-thing-leads-to-another structure that of course ends with the titular bunk beds—after some amusing detours. She varies the visual pace of the story with double-page spreads, some dialogue-heavy back-and-forth exchanges, and lots of sneaky puns, such as those on the cereal boxes ("How Wheat It is!") and this world's paper of record, the Gnu York Times. But the word jokes alone would make for a thin experience if the facial expressions and body language of Temairik's characters weren't so spot-on and the mostly easygoing vibe between Lucy and Alice weren't so comfortably familiar.

The stakes, as they are, never get much higher than a trashed party pastry, but spending time with Lucy and Alice is well worth it