Review - Bears Make the Best Writing Buddies

Bears Make the Best Writing Buddies (Bears Make the Best #3)
by Carmen Oliver
illustrated by Jean Claude
Date: 2020
Publisher: Capstone Editions
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Adelaide loves writing. Bear loves writing. But Theo does NOT love writing. Thankfully, Adelaide and Bear are ready to team up and persuade the entire class, including Mrs. Fitz-Pea, that Bears make the best writing buddies. After all, who better to teach you how to fish and forage for new ideas than a bear? This third picture book in Carmen Oliver's Bears Make the Best...series is sure to encourage even the most reluctant writer to write a story.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Although this book has a basic fictional framework in its story about Adelaide, Theo, and Bear, it's almost a non-fiction title with tips for kids on how to be a good writer.

Ironically, however, the writing itself is mediocre. The punctuation is also incorrect in parts of the book. Adelaide tells much of the story with dialogue. Unfortunately, the paragraphs aren't punctuated correctly. (When there is more than one paragraph of dialogue, opening quotation marks should be used on each; that isn't done here.)

I'm not usually a fan of anthropomorphized bear stories when the bears interact with humans. But Bear in this case is obviously fictional; when we first see him, he's reading a book and wearing an alphabet sweater. The illustrations are a bit too basic for my taste (especially Bear, whose paws are drawn so simply that it looks odd when he's "holding" a pencil). The illustrations are really secondary to the text, anyway. This is a book about writing, and the characters and setting are almost irrelevant.

I almost feel like I'm missing something here. That could be because there are two previous books in this series. Maybe they do a better job of explaining Adelaide and Bear's relationship. As it is, I feel like I've been dropped into the middle of a story, and I have no idea why there's a bear sitting in a quiet corner of the classroom.

Thank you to NetGalley and Capstone Editions for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.17 out of 5