In No Bears, a humorous picture book by Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Leila Rudge, a precocious young girl introduces herself immediately after the title page: “Hi! I’m Ella, and this is my book.” She can be seen working on a story in a spiral-bound notebook. As a storywriter, Ella is confident about her likes and dislikes: “I’m tired of bears,” she states. “Every time you read a book, it’s just BEARS BEARS BEARS—horrible furry bears slurping honey in awful little caves.” She vows not to have any bears in the story she’s writing. Instead, her story will have a fairy, a beautiful princess (who looks an awful lot like our narrator), a castle, and a villain—but no bears. Accompanied by illustrations that look like they’re from the spiral-bound pages of her notebook, Ella begins telling us her story. As promised, it’s about a princess who lives in a castle with her doting royal family and her fairy godmother. Ella makes sure to point out that there are no bears in the castle, in the nearby village, or for that matter, the entire kingdom or even in all the faraway lands. Meanwhile, readers can see a friendly looking bear hanging around the margins of the pages. Suspense builds when “an evil, terrible monster” sets out to kidnap the princess. “Ooh. This is getting scary,” says Ella, who pops up now and then in the margins to comment on her own story. Just when it looks like the princess is doomed, a furry “somebody” mysteriously stages a dramatic rescue. “Phew! That was close,” remarks Ella, who explains that the fairy godmother “with her fantastical magic powers” had saved the princess. But from the goings-on in the margins, readers can see that it was really the bear that stole the fairy godmother’s wand and saved the day. Young readers will delight in being in on the joke of this story-within-a-story filled with illustrations-within-illustrations. As an added bonus, Rudge populates her charming pastel-hued illustrations with characters from popular fairy tales. On subsequent readings, ask your kids if they can spot the Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, the Owl and the Pussycat, and more.
What is your favorite bear in a story?
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Sandra Lee Rella, mother of two budding bookworms, is a freelance editor and writer, and a former children’s book review editor.
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