Bears

At over a year, can you believe Maya still doesn't really take to stuffed animals or dolls. Just puppets really, especially if they make noise. She doesn't have a blankie or stuffed animal she wants to hang onto. Weird, huh?

Bears, by Ruth Krauss and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, is an homage to teddies everywhere. Is has a short, simple text, composed mostly of words and phrases that rhyme with 'bears'. "On the stairs", "Collecting fares", and "Millionaires".

The big draw for Bears is the illustrations. Everybody's favorite monster boy is the main character, and he spies bears everywhere doing everything. There are so many details to point out. You can talk about what individual bears are doing or what expressions do they have on their faces? And there are bears and bear faces to find in unlikely places, such as the lamp, the wallpaper, even the moon.

For babies, Bears is a nice, quick read. For talkers, this is a good book for rhymes. For preschoolers, it's a great sit-and-talk-about-the-pictures book.