The Night Bear

January 1, 2019
A bear who dines nightly on children's nightmares can't stomach a particularly pleasant dream.Every night the Night Bear comes into town on a bus and eats the bad dreams of children who are deep in sleep. The monsters and spiders and scary storms that torment kids' thoughts are delectable to Night Bear. "Scary pirates being mean taste like strawberries and cream." But one night, when the Night Bear unwraps a less-nightmarish meal--unicorns and rainbows--he sets off to find someone who might want this disgusting stuff. Tom, a boy who's still up, is happy to exchange his spider and snake for the unicorns, and Night Bear goes back to his bear friends with the story of his first encounter with a fur-less human child. The frightening meals are approachably toothless as written and illustrated by the de Moraes, and Night Bear is wide-eyed and cuddly, with a big heart-shaped belly. In its curved corners and moonlit scenes, the artwork couldn't be more inviting, and Night Bear's choice of meals is obviously a much-needed public service, as any child would agree. The front endpapers offer detailed origami instructions to make a takeout box for Night Bear, while the rear endpapers depict a bevy of tasty nightmares. Tom presents white.Whimsical, light, and soothing, like a pretty good dream that Night Bear would surely never eat. (Picture book. 4-9)

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August 23, 2019

PreS-Gr 1-How do you recycle a nightmare? Feed it to the Night Bear, of course! The Night Bear loves to eat nightmares, and this gentle, silly narrative explains how he roams cozy neighborhoods each night looking for take-out boxes packed with nightmarish delight. To him, "Monsters with hideous eyes/taste like burgers and fries." But when he accidentally bites into a sweet rainbow and unicorn dream, he trades it for a little boy's bad dream about spiders and a snake, which to the Night Bear tastes "like chocolate cake." Bold and lively illustrations set on a midnight blue background shift between single pages and spreads and clever vignettes in rounded rectangles. Front endpapers offer instructions for making a take-out box for Night Bear pick-up, and final endpapers detail the Night Bear's silly rhymes with his favorite nightmarish snacks. VERDICT Unique and imaginative, this amusing story will work well for one-on-one sharing or for a bedtime-themed storytime. Recommended for picture book shelves.-Brianne Colombo, Fairfield Free Public Library, NJ

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2019
Grades K-3 *Starred Review* Troubled by nightmares? Leave them outside the door for the Night Bear, passing by on its nocturnal rounds, to eat. Night Bears find nightmares delicious, and why not? Monsters with hideous eyes / taste like burgers and fries. Dragons with a fiery bite taste like / Turkish delight. / Scary pirates being mean taste like / strawberries and cream. But how about a dream of unicorns and rainbows? EEEEEEEEUCK! exclaims the Night Bear. That is disgusting! Reluctant to throw a whole dream away, the Night Bear goes in search of a wakeful child who might be willing to make a trade, and finds one at last, before joining fellow bears at dawn to board the night bus out of town. The illustrator tucks tiny images of grimacing burgers, fire-breathing flying pigs, and other comically rendered nightmares into peaceful moonlit scenes of a big, friendly-�looking bear padding through residential neighborhoods in search of snacks. Along with stepped diagrams for folding a paper box with lid for dreamers to stash their nightmares in, the creators extend the rhyming by appending no fewer than 34 more snacks, complete with captions: A howling ghost tastes like cheese on toast. Giant poodles taste like ramen noodles. Vampires who like to play taste like cr�me br�l�e. Yum.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)