Grizzly Boy

PreS-Gr 1—Theo is a boy who wakes up one morning and decides to be "wild and free." Morphing into a grizzly bear, he practices his growl beneath a den of blankets, and scratches "his bottom on the bedpost." Theo's mother goes along with this pretend play, but also sets limits and cleverly guides him to make different choices. When Theo refuses to wear underpants, his mom opens the windows wide until he decides, with a shiver, that his "fur is a bit short" and he puts on clothes. After throwing a temper tantrum, he reluctantly "lumber[s] off to school with his big bare feet." He behaves badly at school, and Subisak's acrylic illustrations show a raging, brown bear tossing chairs and scaring kids. When Theo gets home, his flimsy excuse of "They made me wear shoes" finally testing his mother's patience, and she explodes with "Grizzly Mom does not cook dinner!" A wordless sequence shows the little grizzly giving his mama a hug. Back to being a boy who respects boundaries, Theo offers "Um … maybe we can just be part grizzly?" Speech bubbles capture realistic dialogue between parent and child, but the second-person narration is stilted and has several awkward page turns prefaced by "But when…" or "And so…"