Parents' Guide to

Horrible Bear!

By Jan Carr, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 3+

Girl blames bear in funny story about anger and forgiveness.

Horrible Bear! Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Community Reviews

age 3+

Based on 1 parent review

age 3+

Highly entertaining 'message' book

A very fun and idiosyncratic story with a great lesson, Horrible Bear is a great book to talk with your kids about.

This title has:

Educational value

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1):
Kids say: Not yet rated

Readers will recognize themselves and learn a thing or two about strong emotions in this fun, colorful story about the runaway force of anger and the disarming power of forgiveness. Author Dyckman has a knack for combining humor with emotional truths, and illustrator OHora delivers a charming spitfire of a character with a mess of red curls as unruly as her emotions. The girl's angry at the bear, the bear's angry at the girl, and both of them stomp and shout. The story turns and illustration are lots of fun -- haven't we all felt anger at friends? -- and kids can chime in as the girl shouts "HORRIBLE BEAR!" and the bear growls "RAWR!"

There are jokes embedded in the art, with pictures of books about bears and a cameo from Dyckman/OHora's Wolfie the Bunny, and the book cleverly sidesteps a too-pat happy ending by showing another mishap-in-the-making: After the girl and bear mend the kite, we see a goat nibbling on it.

Book Details

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