Title: Orange Pear Apple Bear
Author/Illustrator: Emily Gravett
Publisher: Pan Macmillan, A$12.95RRP
Publication Date: 01/03/07
Format: Soft cover
ISBN: 9781405090223
For ages: 0-4
Type: Picture Book
About: If it's not the scrumptious drawings, it will be the classic and very clever simplicity that will draw you in with this lovely and utterly charming book, awash with watercolour bliss. Quite simply, this is what Gravett is known for - charm and simplicity all strung up with a big clever bow.
I mean, who doesn't love apples, oranges, pears and bears? but when this gorgeous grizzly and his fruity counterparts become one in the same - and/or a combination of each other - we feel the imagination being wrenched from its sticking place and zhoozhed with creative fizz. And this is only the adult imagination - imagine what it does to the brains of little ones.
An ideal book for the very young, who are often totally underrated when it comes to nuance and comprehension, Orange Pear Apple Bear feeds the brain with a verbal/imagery connection that will pull the corner of your lips into a smile. Its repetitive use of very few words are thoughtfully placed and gorgeously complemented by that superlative stuff from the tip of Gravett's paint brush.
Add it to the baby shower gift basket. It will be a tattered, battered, chewed-on favourite in no time. (Yes, not to worry - there is also a board book version.)
This book is available online
