Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup.

Big Smelly Bear never washed and he smelled so bad that the other animals avoided him, except for the flies that buzzed around him.  One morning, he woke up with a terrible itch in his fur that couldn’t be fixed by rolling in the dirt or rubbing his back on a tree.  Big Fluffy Bear offers to scratch his back if Big Smelly Bear takes a bath first.  Reluctantly, Big Smelly Bear agrees and finds that he has made a new friend just by bathing.

Children will immediately agree with Big Smelly Bear that baths are horrid.   But they will also agree that they don’t want to be avoided or have flies around them either.  The illustrations are large, bold and vivid and will project well to a group of preschoolers, the age that will enjoy this book the most.  The text is perfect to read aloud with lots of repetition and short amounts of text on each page.

Share with a preschool crowd for a bear or bathing unit.