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GreenSense:
This book resonates with gentle humour. The story is somewhat wordy for a young child, but there're lots of opportunities to growl and grunt like a bear which should keep young listeners delighted.The story is somewhat fantastic, but not at all scary.

Excerpts...

Review... by Jessica Wagener

Bubba Brayna is ninety-seven years old and doesn't see or hear as well as she used to. Old Bear is sleeping cozily in his den, when he is awakened by the delicious scent of Bubba Brayna's latkes. Old Bear comes to call, Bubba Brayna mistakes him for the rabbi, and invites him in. Old bear then grunts and growls his way through the blessings, eats up all the latkes and leaves with a warm scarf wrapped around his neck.

Set in a European shtetl of some undefined past era, this book resonates with gentle humour. The story is somewhat wordy for a young child, but there's lots of opportunities to growl and grunt like a bear which should keep young listeners delighted.The story is somewhat fantastic, but not at all scary ( I don't know why so many old country tales for kids are filled with ghosts and dybbucks but alas it is so).

The art is light and airy, and evokes the deep snow and chill of winter. At the end, when Bubba Brayna realizes that she has just spent the evening entertaining a wild bear, she responds with a generous giggle. "That was a very clever bear... or a very foolish Bubba Brayna. Ah well, let the bear have a happy Chanukkah. I had a happy Channukah too." Would that we could all share her staunchness it the face of the unexpected, especially around the holidays. Martha Stewart would be proud.

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