Baby Bear's Big Dreams Review

This Baby Bear is well worth the cover price for rhymes that gleefully glide past and a fanciful premise. Okay, the idea of a little kid dreaming of what he'll get to do as a big kid has been done to death, but Yolen has a way of making it worth one more try:

When I grow up
in a year or four,
I'll get a tent
and go explore.
I'll wear brown boots
and a feathered hat,
and bring along
a sleeping mat.

See? What'd I tell ya. Nice stuff. And you even get some counting in there, as she goes from one year to five, with Baby Bear still needing a good-night tuck even when he's all grown up. It's written from inside a kid's head, with all the contradictions and exaggerations playfully glossed over with a big smooch.

Sweet's watercolors are, well, sweet, and get the job done without too much fuss.