All the toy characters are back, helping Little Bear locate lost trousers, which everyone has used differently: Camel as hump-warmers, Rabbit as a holey ski hat, Dog as a two-bone bone-holder, among others. Hissey's textured illustrations, so lifelike that they resemble hand-tinted photographs, are as remarkable here as in her Old Bear. Karen Litton, Confederation Centre Public Library, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, CanadaĬopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. It's fun to look at, especially with those pleasantly vibrant colors. The illustrations are the strength of the book the text repeats information found in them, belaboring the point, and it has its precious moments. It's just the visual represen tation of the life that small children can breathe into their toys, and the close-up perspective adds to the sense of realism. Those are real toys on the page, fiber by fiber, but at the same time, they look quite reasonably capable of moving and talking.

It's an idea that works better visually than it does in words, and the pictures here stand out in their near photo-realism and their dimen sionality. This is a playful extension of the imaginative game of taking an object and finding various uncustomary uses. All share the cake in celebration of the trousers' return. Finally, Little Bear re trieves his trousers from Bramwell Brown, who has converted them to a double-barreled icing bag to decorate the cake he's baked. Each time, he's one step behind, finding that his clothing has been used and passed along: Sailor tried them as sails for his boat, Rabbit as a hat, with plenty of room for his ears, etc. PreSchool-Grade 1 One morning, Little Bear wakes to find his trousers missing, so he goes from one stuffed-animal friend to another in search of them.

Jane hissey rabbit