Eat Like a Bear

by April Pulley Sayre (Author) Steve Jenkins (Illustrator)

Eat Like a Bear
Reading Level: K − 1st Grade

Follows a bear from the time she emerges from her den in April after four months without food, through months of eating fish, ants, and huckleberries, to midwinter when the arrival of two cubs interrupts her long winter's rest. Includes facts about brown (grizzly) bears of the Yellowstone National Park/Glacier National Park region.

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$18.99
This title will be released on Jan. 28, 2025, midnight

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Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Sayre and Jenkins follow Vulture View (2007) with a similarly excellent study of brown bears that's in equal parts poetic and enlightening. Clipped, second-person verse lets readers imagine themselves as bears that have just awoken from a winter's hibernation. "Can you eat like a bear?" Sayre asks as the book opens. "Awake in April. Find food./ But where?" Repeated throughout as the months pass, the "find food" line reads like a mantra, underlining how much of a bear's life is dedicating to acquiring food to sustain itself, not always an easy task (an elk calf proves too fast to catch). An extensive appendix--about bears' eating habits, hibernation, and interactions with humans--explains that brown bears are omnivorous, and the book bears that out (no pun intended). In May, the brown bear "Chomp parsnip stems" and dandelions, while later months have him eating ants, trout, roots, and an unlucky ground squirrel ("Grab and crunch/ a meaty lunch"). Jenkins's torn-paper collages are typically exquisite in their naturalistic detail; the bark paper he uses for the bear is especially well-suited to capturing its grizzled, hulking furriness. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)

Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3--Posing the question, "Can you eat like a bear?" this book follows a brown bear as it forages for food throughout the year. Emerging from hibernation in April, the animal sets out on its quest. Each month provides a different delicacy: crispy roots and a ground squirrel in July, juicy huckleberries in September, a stash of pinecones in October. All serve to fatten up the omnivorous creature as it prepares once again for hibernation. The short text is set in a clear, large font and that, coupled with the big, full-color, cut- and torn-paper collage illustrations, makes it a natural for sharing with a group. The mammals themselves are rendered by using handmade Mexican bark paper. Its rough nature gives them greater impact and dimension on the pages. The extensive end notes provide details about the diet of the brown bear, or Ursus artos, its threatened status, and current scientific studies. This additional information increases the usefulness of the title, making it a viable classroom and research tool. That, along with the beautiful art, makes this a first choice for most libraries.--Sara-Jo Lupo Sites, George F. Johnson Memorial Library, Endicott, NY

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Expressive narration and careful pictorial depiction." —Booklist

"Sayre invites readers to imagine themselves as a brown bear in the American West . . . Jenkins's torn-paper illustrations are reproduced with such clarity that one can almost grasp the thick, fuzzy fur of the bear." —The Horn Book

"A first choice for most libraries." —School Library Journal

"[an] excellent study of brown bears that's in equal parts poetic and enlightening." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"* Inquisitive, informed and lyrical; an intriguing extension to hibernation classics." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"* Rarely has a book about these scavengers gotten such a gorgeous treatment." —Booklist, starred review on Vulture View

April Pulley Sayre
April Pulley Sayre and Jeff Sayre are a husband-and-wife team who lead ecotours and travel extensively to study, photograph, and videotape animals in the rain forests of Panama, Madagascar, and Ecuador. They also speak at schools, botanical gardens, zoos, and nature festivals. Together they wrote a natural history book for adults. Jeff Sayre is an ecologist specializing in native plants and birds. April Pulley Sayre is an award-winning author of more than forty books for children. The Sayres love to brainstorm and laugh together - which is how the idea for ONE IS A SNAIL came about.

Randy Cecil graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and is the illustrator of numerous books for children. He says of ONE IS A SNAIL, "It was great fun to figure out how these strange creatures would react in all these different combinations. Crabs seem to have the best time together!"
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781665952217
Lexile Measure
400
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Henry Holt & Company
Publication date
January 28, 2025
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV029000 - Juvenile Fiction | Nature & the Natural World | General
JUV002030 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Bears
Library of Congress categories
Bears
Grizzly bear
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Science & Nature / Envi
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Science & Nature / Biol
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Animals / Mammals
Virginia Readers Choice Award
Nominee 2016 - 2016
Red Clover Award
Nominee 2015 - 2015
Young Hoosier Book Award
Nominee 2016 - 2016

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