Bear's Scare

PreS-Gr 1—Bear keeps his house neat and tidy and takes good care of his stuffed animal friend, Ursa. One day as Bear cleans, he finds a book on the floor and underneath—horrors!—a spider web. As Bear searches the house, finding even more spider webs, he begins to think of all the damage the spider may be doing and determines to flush it out. Unfortunately, all the searching results in a bigger mess and a terrible accident as he unintentionally tears off Ursa's arm. Bear runs for the first-aid kit and returns to find Ursa's arm reattached by…a spider web! Bear decides he can accept his new spider friend and does not mind the webs. Charcoal-and-crayon drawings are uncluttered, with a limited palette of earth tones. Illustrations of an industrious spider in a button beret, who is painting, knitting, and reading, do not match Bear's assumptions about the creature. While Bear's easy acceptance of the messy spider webs may be a stretch, this tale about friendship and overcoming prejudices is not.