Bear's Busy Morning: A Guessing Game Story

by Harriet Ziefert, Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Illustrator)

When children spend time with Bear, every minute is fun. That’s because he’s on the go all morning long, and kids can test their skills as they figure out what he’s doing. First up on the breakfast at eight. What will Bear put on his plate? A hot dog, a bone, a scrumptious lolly? Or is it the egg that’s yummy in his tummy? Open the flap and find out what he wants. There’s a guessing game for every hour till noon, when he gets a big hug from MOM. Harriet Ziefert’s sweet text and Arthur Lobel’s timeless paintings make this a real charmer.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Childrens

16 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 1991

About the author

Harriet Ziefert grew up in North Bergen, New Jersey, where she attended the local schools. She graduated from Smith College, then received a Masters degree in Education from New York University.

For many years, Ziefert was an elementary school teacher. She taught most grades from kindergarten to fifth grade. "I liked it," she said, but she stopped teaching when she had her own sons. When her children were older, Ziefert wanted "a bigger arena" for her work. She went to work at a publishing company, Scholastic in New York City, developing materials for teacher's guides for kindergarten language arts and social studies programs.

"About twelve years ago," says Ziefert in a 1995 interview, "I tried to get a job as an editor, but no one would hire me as a trade editor. So I decided to write my own books." Since then, she has written several hundred books, mostly picture books and easy-to-read books. "I write books very quickly," she says, "in about twelve hours. I rewrite them three times over three days, and then they're done." She writes about twenty books a year.

Reviews

[Edward Sojuwa]

This is a guessing game type of book for kids 2-5 to read and play along. Can they guess what Little Bear will do when he gets up in the morning? What'll he eat? Who will he give a hug to? (And we KNOW how bears love hugs!!!) It's nothing but pure joy, although I wish every kid would be patient enough to give it a try.
Four stars
Guess how I like this bear. (Spoiler alert: it's awesome pawsome!)

[Nanny B]

Cute guessing, interactive story will fold out answers.

[Lindsay]

I used Bear's Busy Morning as a participation story for a breakfast-themed bilingual story time program. Children are shown several options for what Bear is doing at a certain time in the day, and then they have to guess the correct option based on the cues from the text. When I read the story, I actually pointed to each option and asked the kids, for example, "Did Bear eat a hot dog for breakfast?" and then wait for them to respond "No!" I ended with the "correct" option and then revealed the correct answer beneath the flap. It worked pretty well that way.

[Beverly]

Cute book, good for a story time about Time.
On the left page, the child is asked to choose which of 3 or 4 items shown answers the question posed. The right page is folded over and the child must lift the flap to find the answer underneath.
This story takes Bear through a series of activities, asking the child which object he will need for a certain activity.
The watercolor illustrations are by Arnold Lobel. The rotund little bear and the cheerful scenes will amuse small children as they work their way through the book, which is suitable for ages 1-3.

[Stacy]

This is a cute story that allows a child to guess what things Bear will need for each activity he wants to do. In this book, we also meet Bear's mother. There is no rhyming in this book. It also teaches about time.

[Stephanie]

I give the Bear books by Harriet Ziefert 5 starts because my 2 and 1/2 year old loves them. They are just ok to me, but slightly better than "twaddly" supermarket books with cartoon characters.

[Leslie]

Life-the-flap book

Using pictures given to predict what will happen next.
Helpful practice for beginners.
Ages 4-6 / Shared Reading / Beginning Readers