Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear series is the book equivalent of a warm soft blanket on a chilly night. Without being saccharine, the simple stories follow the adventures, or non-adventures as the case may be, of Little Bear, an anthropomorphized bear child, as he explores his home and the world around it. One summary of the series describes Little Bear aptly: “He has a resemblance to preschool children: his world is benign, close and secure, with Mother Bear at its centre.”
Holmelund was born in Denmark in 1920, and her family immigrated to the United States when she was four. Before leaving Denmark, she was inculcated with a love of Scandinavian fairy tales in the form of Hans Christian Andersen, whose stories her mother read to her. In creating Little Bear, Holmelund evokes the innocent coziness of those shared stories. She said, “Little Bear is me in Denmark, where I was cuddled and loved.”
Like Elsa Beskow, Minarik began creating her own stories at a young age, and she dictated her first works to her mother.
Once settled in the United States, Minarik attended Queens College, City University New York, graduating in 1942. While there, she married her first husband Walter Minarik. After finishing college, Minarik worked as a journalist. She then moved to Long Island where she taught first grade. Like Jim Aylesworth, the classroom experience gave Minarik a keen sense of the elements that make a good book for children. Where Aylesworth was interested in writing books for the shared experience of reading aloud, Minarik sought to write a book that children could read independently.
Dissatisfied with primers available for at-home reading practices (the likes of the infamous Dick and Jane books), Minarik created what became the first of the I-Can-Read series with simple vocabulary accessible to new readers. Minarik was spurred on in her project by the experience of trying to find books for her daughter, Brooke, when she was first learning to read. Little Bear has the simplicity of the reading primers but with a more engaging and warmer story.
This background explains the painfully slow start in the first of the Little Bear series. From the choppy and inauspicious beginning blossoms a marvelous world of a loving bear family. The first book in the series was published in 1957 with the sublime illustrations by Maurice Sendak. Relatively young in his career, Sendak provides Victorian-themed portraits of very proper, very believably human bears. Little Bear may run about with bare feet (no pun intended) with only his fur coat, but Mother Bear is always arrayed in her petticoats and full dress.
The illustrations are not cartoons, but surprisingly expressive and evocative. The editor at the first publishing house Minarik met with suggested changing the characters to people instead of bears, but Minarik was determined to keep the story ursine. She said, “I thought to myself, all children of all colours would be reading the stories. All children love animals. The bear is fine. I love them because Mother took me to the Bronx zoo every day, and I fell in love with the cubs. My bears were a family.”
The interactions between Little Bear and Mother Bear capture the charming and exasperating experience of life with young children. “Little Bear’s Wish” springs to mind. Mother Bear displays an unflappable calm as she goes about her day off the page. Little Bear circles around her, flitting in and out as she maintains a sense of predictable order throughout the stories.
Coupled with her impeccable dress, Mother Bear presents a model of motherhood, an impressive feat for an anthropomorphized bear. Indeed, it is a rare treat to find a mother worthy of emulation in literature. Rare are the examples of a mother one would aspire to be in much of the Western canon. In Mother Bear, some mothers have found, truly, a worthy guide. Mother Bear is actively involved, responsive to Little Bear’s queries and troubles. Yet, Mother Bear exists confidently in an adult world with mature concerns and she is not living the misery of endless pretend play with a young child that some to which parents feel the need to subject themselves.
One reviewer claims, “Father Bear appears, but only from time to time, and is clearly of less importance.” In a sense this is true. The preschool child is not as concerned with the father, in this case absent for long periods while fishing. On the other hand, Father Bear’s presence is felt even in the stories in which he does not appear. Mother Bear has the stability and calm presence she provides because she is provided for in the home.
One of the particularly beloved features of the later books in the series are the stories-within-stories, such as Mother Bear’s childhood encounter with a robin and Grandfather’s positively delightful Goblin Story.
The books that followed the first Little Bear include A Present for Mother Bear (1958), Father Bear Comes Home (1959), Little Bear’s Friend (1960), Little Bear’s Visit (1961), A Kiss for Little Bear (1968). Each book has shining moments to recommend it and favorite episodes that will be requested again and again by eager listeners. While the stories are intended for independent reading, they offer enjoyment for reading aloud to the preschool set, whose mannerisms and concerns are so well expressed in Little Bear’s character. While the text is impoverished from the perspective of vocabulary, the sophistication and visual interest of the illustrations make for an enjoyable reading experience.
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