LET'S GO HOME, LITTLE BEAR

The beguiling bears introduced in Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? (1992) are coming back from a walk in the snowy woods. When Little Bear tells his huge companion about the noises he hears following them (``Plod, plod, plod...I think it's a Plodder!''), Big Bear reassures him (``The plod was my feet in the snow''; and, later, ``That was the ice as it dripped in the stream''). But though Big Bear keeps saying, ``Come on,'' he ends—as big people do when tired little ones lag—by carrying Little Bear. Varying his comfortably repetitive tale with new sounds that Little Bear reports and new words to describe his slowing pace, Waddell again comes up with a well-nigh perfect nursery tale; he even rounds out his own beautifully constructed story with the one Big Bear tells Little Bear back in the cozy cave: the events of their walk home. Firth re-creates these endearing characters in soft pencil and watercolors of mostly brown and snow-shadow blue, in a relaxed style that perfectly captures the affectionate mood. (Picture book. 2-6)