Bears who Share

Bears on Chairs by Shirley Parenteau, illustrated by David Walker.

Four small chairs
just right for bears.
Where is the bear
for each small chair?

Can five bears find a fair way to share four chairs?

The very simple rhyming couplet scheme can become monotonous, unless read with enthusiasm and expression. This is one of those stories which really relies on the story-teller to put it across effectively.

However, the story itself is immensely attractive to its intended audience of one to three-year-olds; children who are just learning problem-recognition and counting skills, and who are intimately familiar with the challenge of 'sharing' so it's fair for everyone. The themes of compassion and sharing are dealt with lightly and the ending provides a deeply satisfactory resolution for preschoolers - a sharing solution that accommodates all the bears.

The watercolour illustrations are charming, each bear has it's own colour, so they are clearly identifiable; and by choosing to draw only the barest minimum (bears and chairs), they are clearly visible against the white background.

You need to be an expressive reader to put this one across effectively, but it works well as a read-aloud for a reasonably large group of children. Most effective in it's target group of one to three-year-olds. But older children in the group can be engaged in the counting aspects, and offered the chance to problem-solve as the story goes along? 'What could the bears do next?'

This was a surprise success with Mitchell - and was one of his favourite books for several months. At three, he's recently rediscovered it, and is enjoying it again. It's worked particularly well for girls. Boys (apart from Mitchell) have enjoyed the story, but not asked for it again.