Cub and Brown

With its short sentences and frequent pencil sketched illustrations, ‘Cub and Brown’ is aimed at newly independent readers who are becoming interested in chapter books. These gentle stories of friendship between a 7-8 year old boy scout (Cub) and a bear (Brown) could also work well as read-aloud bedtime stories for younger children. With the exception of the first and last chapters (when Cub and Brown meet and say goodbye), the stories told in each chapter are fairly standalone making it easy to dip in and out as desired.

Each of the 12 chapters is titled as a tip for exploring the outdoors, eg. “Tip #1: Be Prepared…. Tip #7: Wear a Hat… Tip #12: Make your knots tight.” This is a cute motif that runs through the book, along with repetition of the phrase, “…. key to survival in the wilderness.”

The thing that frustrated me most is that while keeping sentences short for early readers, full stops are often used in place of a comma, causing some sentences to feel awkward and incomplete. For instance, “Learning how to tie up your shoelaces was very hard. But Cub knew a thing or two about tying knots. Since trying knots was an important skill for survival in the wilderness.”

‘Cub and Brown’ will appeal to parents and children who are looking for gentle, non-threatening stories to calm and soothe at bedtime; and to young readers who want to begin reading alone, but worry about scary situations and what might happen next.