The Bear That Wasn T

A hibernating bear awakens to find himself smack dab in the middle of a sprawling industrial complex where people think he's just a silly man who wears a fur coat. 46 illustrations.

This book is about Bear... so what happens when he doesn't show up on his page? Who will find him? Will it be Giraffe, who himself seems to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or Cow, or perhaps even the author herself? One thing's for sure--it probably won't be Duck. Duck doesn't seem concerned that Bear is missing. In fact, he seems to be trying to steal the show for himself! Duck would much prefer that the reader pick up his own book, The Duck Who Showed Up. He even disguises himself as Bear in an attempt to fool the reader. But after pages and pages of Duck's antics and search-party chaos, Bear appears somewhere utterly unexpected. In fact, it looks like someone may have tried to get rid of him on purpose.... LeUyen Pham's The Bear Who Wasn't There takes readers a hilarious search for the missing title character.

A delightful children’s book “filled with surreal gags about prepositions and adverbs, cheerful absurdity, and down the rabbit hole-style musings” (School Library Journal). One day, a few minutes after Once Upon a Time, a bear awakes to find he has lost something very important: himself! He sets out into the Fabulous Forest to find himself, using only a few clues scrawled on a piece of paper: the bear he's looking for is a nice bear; he is a happy bear; and he’s very handsome too! These sound like pretty good qualities to Bear, and so begins his memorable journey. With the help of critters like the Convenience Cow, the Lazy Lizard, the Turtle Taxi, and the Penultimate Penguin, Bear finds that he himself is just what he’s been looking for all along: a nice, happy bear—and handsome too! “A melding of Phantom Tollbooth logic, Alice in Wonderland whimsy, and peppered with a cast of unforgettable Little Prince like characters . . . You can’t help fall into the imaginative world of this delightfully clever picture book.” —BookBloom “Irresistible.” —O, The Oprah Magazine “Gentle wordplay and Lewis Carroll-like paradoxes . . . Everything is new to Bear, and his discoveries will delight readers.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Erlbruch's playful, distinctive illustrations . . . are sublime.” —Kirkus Reviews “Young readers with a philosophical nature and an appreciation for provocative silliness will be especially gratified by Bear's self-discovery . . . The Fabulous Forest effectively evokes a fairy tale feel, and Bear, a portly fellow with huge eyes, a bright red mouth, and colorful flecks in his black fur, is loveable at first sight.” —New York Journal of Books

"When Bear can't sleep, he goes on an adventure and discovers the wonders of New York City--a parade, Central Park, hot dogs, and more! But when he finally gets tired and looks for a place to rest, he learns why it's called the city that never sleeps"--Dust jacket flap.

From National Book Award in Fiction finalist Andrew Krivak comes a gorgeous fable of Earth’s last two human inhabitants, and a girl’s journey home In an Edenic future, a girl and her father live close to the land in the shadow of a lone mountain. They possess a few remnants of civilization: some books, a pane of glass, a set of flint and steel, a comb. The father teaches the girl how to fish and hunt, the secrets of the seasons and the stars. He is preparing her for an adulthood in harmony with nature, for they are the last of humankind. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through a vast wilderness that offers the greatest lessons of all, if she can only learn to listen. A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature’s dominion. Andrew Krivak is the author of two previous novels: The Signal Flame, a Chautauqua Prize finalist, and The Sojourn, a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He lives with his wife and three children in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, in the shadow of Mount Monadnock, which inspired much of the landscape in The Bear.

A contented little possum is discovered by a group of picknickers who, mistaking his upside-down smile for a frown, resolve to rescue him.

The black dog is not scratching. He goes back to his sniffing and huffing and then he starts cracking his bone. Stick and I are huddled tight. . . . It is dark and no Daddy or Mommy and after a while I watch the lids of my eyes close down like jaws. Told from the point of view of a six-year-old child, The Bear is the story of Anna and her little brother, Stick--two young children forced to fend for themselves in Algonquin Park after a black bear attacks their parents. A gripping and mesmerizing exploration of the child psyche, this is a survival story unlike any other, one that asks what it takes to survive in the wilderness and what happens when predation comes from within.

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: "A hilarious, richly imagined bear's eye view of love, music, alienation, manhood and humanity . . . that recalls Pynchon at his most controlled."—Publishers Weekly The hero of this sensational first novel is an alto-sax virtuoso trying to evolve a personal style out of Coltrane and Rollins. He also happens to be a walking, talking, Blake- and Shakespeare-quoting bear whose musical, spiritual, and romantic adventures add up to perhaps the best novel, ursine or human, ever written about jazz. "Poignant and touching moments combine with hilarious descriptions of the bear's struggle in a story that anyone — whether familiar with jazz or not — will find compelling and entertaining."—David Amram, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Zabor's knack for detail makes the absurd premise believable . . . and neatly turns the weighty subject — the painful and ungainly growth of an artist — into a comic gem."—The New Yorker "In fluent, witty prose Zabor conveys with remarkable vividness the texture of group improvisation. . . . It swings."—A. O. Scott, New York Newsday "Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. Get the Bear."—David Nicholson, Washington Post "Zabor . . . conveys the mingled joy and terror of musical improvisation. He also displays a mean wit."—New York Times Book Review One of the Los Angeles Times Book Review's 100 best books of 1997 Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction