A Visitor for Bear

A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker
Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
2008

     "No Visitors Allowed," reads the sign posted on Bear's front door.  He had never had any visitors and was quite sure he liked it that way.  One day, a little mouse knocks at his door and Bear, quite rudely, tells him to go away.  But Mouse is very persistent and keeps coming back again and again, and again! It doesn't matter how hard Bear tries to keep him out of his house, somehow Mouse always finds a way back in.  Until, exhausted, Bear agrees to share tea with him as long as Mouse promises to leave afterwards and never comeback.
     A Visitor for Bear is the classic tale of the curmudgeon that wishes to be left all alone, until finally someone breaks through his thick hide and shows him the error of his ways (by the way, I just read that "bear" is a synonym of curmudgeon).  Mouse is that someone who ends up showing Bear the power of sharing your life with a friend.  At the end, it's Bear who begs Mouse not to go.
    My son really loved this book! He had a lot of fun guessing where Mouse would show up next inside Bear's house.  I really enjoyed it as well and I thought the illustrations were particularly sweet -they reminded me of old Winnie The Pooh books.