MEET THE BEARS

A parent and child take a worldwide nature tour to meet the eight members of the ursine clan.

The trip starts right up as, teddy bear in tow and following a page on which helpful travel and bear-spotting supplies are laid out, the two brown-skinned nature lovers board a boat to cruise past a polar bear in his icy setting. From there it’s on to watch a brown bear (from a healthy distance) as she snags salmon from a river for her two cubs, peer cautiously out of a tent as a black bear eats supplies carelessly left on a picnic table, and go on to glimpse a spectacled bear in an Andean cloud forest and other bears in their natural habitats. For each encounter, Hall provides both a full-page close-up illustration and a set of smaller images of paws, foods, poop, or other select details to go with Peridot’s descriptive and range notes. And for readers who might be inspired to undertake some bear watching of their own, the importance of staying safe is very properly highlighted, from a first-page comment that bears “are strong. And they can smell you coming from miles away,” to a closing set of cautions for proper behavior in bear country. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Savvy and informative—equally suitable for both armchair and open-air expeditions.