When You Meet a Bear on Broadway by Amy Hest, illustrated by Elivia Savadier

When you meet a bear on Broadway, you stick out your hand and ask them to stop.  Then you politely ask what his business is there.  He bursts into tears saying that he has lost his mother.  The two of you think of how to find her together.  Then you look uptown.  And downtown.  Along the river.  Until you find a forest where the bear climbs a tall tree and shouts for his mother.  But will a mama bear be able to hear him in the middle of a bustling city?

Though the styles are very different, this has the feel of Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie feel.  It is the short lines and the repeating phrase of “When you meet a bear on Broadway.”  Hest takes this form and creates a book about being lost, being helped, and being found.  There is never any sense of panic about the child helping the bear.  It is far more of a problem solving book about what to do when you find a bear on a city street. 

The book has a nice bit of old-fashioned whimsy about it though the setting is modern.  Savadier’s illustrations contribute to this with their gentle lines and watercolor washes.  The little girl and the bear are often the only bright color on the page, magnifying their relationship rather than the largeness of the city itself.

Funny, quiet and very satisfying, this book would be nice paired with any of Numeroff’s If You titles.  It also offers a nice change of pace for any bear-themed stories.  Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by A Patchwork of Books.