The TTLG 2011 Picture Book Celebration: Book one hundred and seventy

Sometimes two people find it just about impossible to get along. They fight about everything and anything. It is almost as if they get into the habit of arguing, and they don't know how to relate to each other in any other way. In today's picture book you will meet a pair of teddy bears who have this problem, and whose owner is driven to distraction by their bickering. 

Brown Bear, White Bear

Svetlana Petrovic

Illustrated by Vincent Hardy

Picture Book

For ages 4 to 7

Eerdmans, 2005, 978-0-8028-5353-0

   One day Alice’s grandmothers each give her a gift. One grandmother gives her a white teddy bear, and the other gives her a brown teddy bear. The bears are identical except for their colors. It isn’t long before the two grandmothers begin to argue about the bears, each one insisting that Alice likes her bear the best. Alice loves both the bears, but unfortunately the two bears do not like each other at all, and soon they are arguing too, just like the two grandmothers.

   The two teddy bears fight when Alice is at school, and when she goes to sleep at night. They fight when Alice plays her games, and they even have a food fight when Alice takes them outside for a picnic. This is the last straw. Angrily Alice gives the two bears baths and then she splits them up. Brown Bear is put on a high shelf, and White Bear is put inside a closet and the door is closed. What Alice does not know is that White Bear is afraid of the dark and Brown Bear is afraid of heights. What are the bears going to do now?

   In this charming picture book, Svetlana Petrovic explores the tempestuous relationship between two teddy bears who cannot get along. Children will be delighted to see that the two furry toys are not all bad, and that the nicer side of their characters come to the fore by the end of the story.

   Vincent Hardy’s wonderful illustrations perfectly compliment the text in this memorable book.