No Bears
Shortlisted CBCA Book of the Year Awards, Early Childhood
Age 3+
General Fiction
Ella is in charge of this book, and she will tell you something right now. There are NO BEARS in it. Not even one.
Ella wants to tell you a story — a story with absolutely no bears. You don’t need bears for a book. You need pretty things like fairies and princesses and castles and maybe funny things and exciting things. In Ella’s kind of story, there are no bears in the village or the castle or the deep dark forest or faraway lands. But there might be . . . a monster! Riffing on well-known fairy-tale themes, this fun, offbeat story is perfectly matched by playful illustrations with a running visual joke that will keep even bear lovers smiling.
Creators
Meg McKinlay grew up in Bendigo, Victoria, in a book-loving, TV- and car-free household. On the long and winding path to becoming a children’s writer, she has worked a variety of jobs including swim instructor, tour guide, translator and teacher. These days, she lives with her family near the ocean in Fremantle and divides her time between teaching and writing, a balance that swings wildly between chaos and calm. She is always busy cooking up more books and you can visit her on the web at www.megmckinlay.com
Leila Rudge was born in England and grew up making mud pies with six siblings and Jeni from number 15. After completing an Illustration Degree at Bath Spa University, Leila headed to Australia to seek her fortune (and the sunshine). Creating tiny characters for books is her favourite part of illustrating.
Reviews
Ella proclaims that she is in charge of this book, and this book will have no bears, not a one: “Every time you read a book, it’s just BEARS BEARS BEARS.” She decrees that her book will have a monster and a princess and a fairy godmother instead, makes herself a crown, and begins her bear-free tale. Readers, however, can see perfectly well in the delicate and droll illustrations that there is a bear in the book they’re reading… This is a picture book that will send the reader delightedly back again and again to sort out the layers of reality… Both the story and the inventive digital pictures draw readers in deeper and deeper, along with the many fairy-tale details to discover (clever viewers will spot all the usual suspects, from Little Red Riding Hood to Rapunzel to the Three Little Pigs).
The Horn Book
“I’m tired of bears. Every time you read a book, it’s just BEARS BEARS BEARS,” grumps the young narrator. Claiming that you don’t need them, she proceeds to craft a story about a monster who sets out to steal a princess and is ultimately foiled by a fairy godmother. Fair enough—but as is evident from the episode’s first page on, the godmother hovering watchfully just beyond the edges of each scene is unmistakably ursine… Young fans of David Wiesner’s THREE PIGS (2001) and other metafictive romps will be properly amused.
Kirkus Reviews
Ella is a delightful and creative mirror for any imaginative child, and the bear is that good parent who doesn’t require recognition, even as she plays an important role in the visual story. Rudge’s busily patterned watercolor pages, comic proportions, and clever details—the billiard-ball-round king’s head; Ella’s own instructions for making a paper crown; the post-rescue party, featuring pigs in tutus and gingerbread men—invite much exploration.
Booklist
A humble bear is the unsung hero of this story-within-a-story told by Ella.
Publishers Weekly
The text plays off Rudge’s winsome illustrations to great effect, with literary references to everything from “The Gingerbread Man” to “The Owl and the Pussycat.” The expressive pictures, dancing across the spreads in a palette of yellows, greens, and browns, are so detailed and artistic that one would never know they were created digitally.
School Library Journal
