Bear Picture Books!

Recently, I've noticed a bunch of fun bear-centric picture books. Although they seem to be the new "it" character (like penguins were for awhile), bears have always been mainstays in picture books.  Here's a roundup of great bear picture books, both classic and new:

New or Newish Bear Books

Goldilocks and Just One Bear, by Leigh Hodgkinson (Candlewick Press, 2011) This is a delightful story of a bear who is lost in the big city and ends up in a penthouse apartment. He sit on chairs that are too hard and too soft; he tries to eat porridge that is too soggy or too crunchy; he tries to find just the right bed. Cleverly, the illustrations show that the things he is trying out are very different from the text (the "chairs" turn out to be cacti and a cat; the "porridge" is a fishbowl or cat food). In a neat twist, the family comes home and the golden-haired mom looks awfully familiar to the bear.

Spam Comments can be Fun

© 2012 Sylvia Liu

Lately I've been enjoying the Dada-esque qualities of the spam comments Blogger screens. Do you think real people are hired to write these comments, or are the mish mash of words generated from some addled AI program?

The comments seem to fall into these categories:

Connect the Dots: Global Warming & Hurricane Sandy

(Click to See Larger Image) © 2012 Sylvia Liu

It didn't take long for people to wonder whether the freakish Hurricane/Nor'easter Sandy could be linked to global warming.  Here's my take . . . connect the dots.