Book of the Week: Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Books are one of the best tools for learning! At Pearson Community Co-op Nursery School, we lead with literacy and develop our curriculum selectively around books. Our teachers have selected a Book of the Week that is used as a platform for each week's theme and teachable moments. Often our artwork and discussions in the classroom match this theme.

This week, we will be reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle.

You probably know many of Eric Carle’s works—his Hungry Caterpillar has sold more than 38 million copies all over the world—but did you know Brown Bear, Brown Bear was his first?

A collaboration between respected children’s author Bill Martin Jr. and Carle, who was working as the art director of an advertising agency at the time, Brown Bear, Brown Bear was published in 1967. His signature style of tissue-paper collage immediately captured the imagination of children and their parents alike, and he has gone on to publish more than 40 books.

Carle’s books attempt to bridge the gap between a child’s life at home and at school. He says: “To me home represents, or should represent; warmth, security, toys, holding hands, being held. School is a strange and new place for a child. Will it be a happy place? There are new people, a teacher, classmates—will they be friendly?

“. . . The unknown often brings fear with it. In my books I try to counteract this fear, to replace it with a positive message. I believe that children are naturally creative and eager to learn. I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun.”

For more than 45 years, Brown Bear, Brown Bear has done just that.

A few links:

Read more on the illustrious author at his official website.
How to make a collage illustration.
Read Brown Bear, Brown Bear with illustrator Eric Carle, from the Reading is Fundamental website