Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Wishinsky and Moore use a family trip to New York City to portray 14 pairs of opposing words in this companion to Where Are You, Bear? Sophie and her patchwork stuffed animal, Bear, are opposites themselves: where Sophie is exuberant and daring ("Go, train, go!" she shouts as they peer from a subway car), Bear is cautious ("Stop, train, stop," he says, visibly relieved as they exit to visit the Museum of Natural History). As Sophie and Bear come to know "wet" and "dry" in Central Park and "lost" and "found" at a toy store full of stuffed bears, Moore's crisp digital cartoons capture both the duo's fluctuating emotions and the energy of the city. Ages 2-5. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-K-A father-daughter trip to New York City offers a lesson in opposites. The girl is taking along her teddy bear, who is not thrilled to be on this adventure. The airplane to the city goes up, then it comes down. Sophie enjoys the fast cab ride, Bear likes a slow one better. The Empire State Building is tall, Sophie and the Bear are short in comparison. The tourists see famous sights throughout the city and end up in a toy store. Sophie looks at many fancy bears while Dad holds her plain traveling companion. In all the excitement, Bear gets left behind at the store. When a young customer picks up Bear, he discovers a tag with Sophie's name and the hotel where they are staying, and the child and her beloved toy are reunited. The digitally produced cartoon characters have small bodies with large heads. This simple story is a good introduction to the concept.-Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A trip to the Big Apple is fraught with anxiety for Sophie's stuffed bear in this tour-cumopposite book. Sophie is thrilled to be visiting New York City with her dad; Bear is not as excited. Left-hand pages present one sentence from Sophie's perspective, while right-hand pages detail Bear's experiences. Bolded words in each introduce opposites: up and down for the airplane ride, fast and slow for the taxi trip, tall and short when comparing themselves to Manhattan's skyscrapers. While not all the sights are specific to New York, readers will recognize LaGuardia Airport, Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, and of course, the subway (the 3 train) in Moore's brightly colored digital illustrations. (The endpapers provide further facts about each of these places.) When Sophie and her dad head to a toy store, though, the tale takes a darker turn as Bear questions his self-worth and then is lost amid all the other bears at the store: fancy/plain, new/old, big/small, forgot/remember. Happily, he wears an address tag that helps him reunite with Sophie: lost/found. Throughout, readers will be captivated by both Sophie's and Bear's facial expressions; Sophie's exuberance is obvious, while the patched and well-loved Bear looks like he might lose his lunch after riding the subway. Where will the lovable Bear and his best friend travel next? (Picture book. 2-5)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
