I’m the author of 25 children’s books, and I recently moved to a small mountain town that has come to co-exist with wild black bears by learning how to properly store and dispose of our food (rather than the alternative, which was to eliminate the bears!). Ever since I’ve lived there, I’ve been fascinated by human-bear interactions, having a few of my own now! When Yosemite Conservancy put out a call for children’s stories, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about—how people can help keep bears safe and wild through proper food storage. I’m a huge advocate for bears and all wildlife!
So Big! Yosemitewas the first board book I had read that is sold by Yosemite Conservancy. I thought, “I wish I had written this book” because it perfectly captures what small children feel when they visit Yosemite National Park. It features a black bear throughout the story, with a repeating question, “How big is so big!” From black bears to El Capitan to Tuolumne Meadows, everything in Yosemite National Park is “so big!” to little ones.
This board book takes the youngest visitors on a tour of Yosemite National Park's BIG sights, including Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, El Capitan, and Tuolumne Meadows. Yosemite is a big place for little people, but with a whimsical bear and squirrel as their guides, children will feel right at home in their national park.
National Geographic Look & Learn Bears is a perfect introduction to bears for toddlers. As a former Montessori preschool teacher, I appreciate the simplicity of the text, photographs, and book design. The book shows five common types of bears (black, brown, polar, pandas, and sun bears). Each bear is shown over two-page spreads and gives one interesting fact that would appeal to the toddler crowd. I could just see my own son at that age enjoying this book.
With fun photos and colourful, approachable design, this wonderful board book guides you through life as a bear, including hibernation, playtime with cubs, the smallest and biggest bears, and finding food!
What I love about Nat Geo’s All About Bears Pre-Reader is that it’s the perfect “next bear book” after a board book (those books typically written for toddlers). Because the book is a pre-reader, the text is simple enough for a 2-3-year-old to understand. In true Nat Geo style, the text is simple, and the book’s design and the photographs are excellent. It really is a terrific book for very young children who want to learn more about bears.
Take a tour around the world to meet all kinds of bears in this delightful pre-reader.
Kids love bears and in this book they'll be introduced to them all: Grizzly, polar, sun, sloth, black, and brown. Great full-colour photos reveal details about how and where they live.
Perfect for beginning and young readers, National Geographic Pre-readers include simple, expert-vetted text and large, engaging photos on every page. A vocabulary tree at the beginning of the book introduces kids to key words in concept groups, helping kids make connections between words. Plus, a wrap-up activity gives kids a chance to use…
I recommendIf You Were a Bear for two big reasons. First, I love that near the end, it addresses proper food storage and why it’s problematic for wild bears to develop a taste for human food. This is the basis of my own book. It’s incredibly important to the survival of bears that humans be vigilant about proper food storage and disposal. The other reason I recommend If You Were a Bearis because the rhyming text opens with the imaginative question, What would it be like to wake up being a bear cub? We know children love to stretch their imaginations! Once the premise is introduced, the story goes on to show a cub’s first year of life.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a bear? This award winning children's book (NAI - National Association of Interpreters 2010 Media award) explores that question.children learn about the life of a bear and how people can help protect them. The story was written by a former National Park ranger wildlife biologist and bear specialist.
What I found most enjoyable about If I Were a Bearis that it uses a rhyming text to share simple facts about various Alaskan bears. It’s a lovely combination of lyrical writing and nonfiction, with soft watercolor illustrations by Erik Brooks. Young children love hearing rhyming texts (their brains actually need rhythm and patterns for healthy development!), so whenever I find a book with well-written rhyme that conveys factual information, it’s a winner in my book!
From the author and illustrator of If I Were a Whale and If I Were A Bird, comes this colorful, rhyming board book that playfully features bears found in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. Beautiful watercolor illustrations of bears of all sizes are sure to delight readers young and old.
Toddlers will love this fun introduction to bears, in this beautifully illustrated board book that shares facts about these amazing animals in an imaginative way.
If I were a polar bear my ears would be small, my feet would be furry, I'd have barely any tail at all.
Curious, hungry black bears just want to eat! Juicy berries, tender grubs, sticky honey—that’s good bear food. But if little adventurers and their families don’t watch out, their food will be bear food, too! The rhyming text and vibrant pictures in this board book show how people of all ages can help keep bears safe and thriving. Perfect for first-time and seasoned campers alike.
Years ago, a bear stole all my food on a backpacking trip, despite tying the food in a tall pine tree (bears are persistent when they know food is at hand—or should I say “paw”!). This book is written to teach toddlers and their families about food storage so this doesn’t happen to them, and helps keep bears wild.
I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives.
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.
The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…
