Brown Bears by Dr Nick Crumpton. Illus. by Colleen Larmour

Spring has arrived in Alaska, and a brown bear is waking up. She was alone when she fell asleep at the start of winter; now she is climbing out of her den with two cubs. Follow them as they discover how to survive in the wilderness, from climbing trees to catching salmon, as their mother teaches the cubs how to be bears. There is a saying about not getting between a mother and her cubs, and the confrontation between a male and the mother demonstrates this, showing that a mother's protection of her offspring extends into the animal world as well as the human. The perfect choice for Mother's Day as young readers can reflect on the other parallels between human and animal mothers!

While this story is set in Alaska, zoologist-author Nick Crumpton explains that because this species is not fussy about its diet, they are able to live in many countries, although exclusively in the northern hemisphere, opening opportunities to explore the differences in climate, seasons, habitats and inhabitants of those regions compared to Australia.

This is another in the brilliant Nature Storybooks series that personalises the stories of particular creatures by focusing on one member of the species while providing more general facts separate to the narrative. It is a successful technique that engages young readers because it brings the information into the child's realm rather than being a series of disconnected facts and figures, and thus provides a solid bridge between fiction and non fiction.

Themes: Bears.

Barbara Braxton