Where is Baby Bear?

Magic Castle Readers

by Jane Belk Moncure, Joy Friedman

Peter opens a word window and plays hide-and-seek with the animals he finds there

Genres: Childrens, Fiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 1987

About the author

Jane Belk Moncure (born December 1926) is an American author of early childhood non-fiction, fiction and poetry. She has also written under the names Bruce Wannamaker and Jennie Davis.

Moncure has lived in Virginia and North Carolina. She worked in early childhood education for thirty-five years. She lives in Elon College, North Carolina.

Moncure is a creative and prolific author: there are millions of her books in circulation, and they are widely distributed in schools and libraries. Distribution has been primarily through The ChildsWorld, ChildrensPress and Scholastic. Her creations and works include My First Steps to Reading, My First Steps to Math, My First Steps to Science, Word Bird, The Soundbox Books, and The Magic Castle Series. Her works have been translated into British English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Malay. Belk Library, Elon University holds a collection of all published books by Moncure.

Jane Belk Moncure is a recipient of the C.S. Lewis Award and over the past 20 years, her works were recognized by numerous Awards. Most recently, in 2008, Jane received the Scholastic Teacher's Choice Award for her outstanding contribution to the My First Steps to Learning Program. --from Wikipedia

Reviews

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very basic intro to animal habitats.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

French version

[Claire Kirchgessner · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Where Is Baby Bear, a young boy named Peter sees some animals playing in the woods. Peter begins a game of hide-and-seek with the animals, in which he is the seeker. Peter is trying to locate the animals, and each time he searches, he can not locate them, until he visits each of their homes, and discovers that that is where they are hiding! The Duck hides behind cattails in the pond. The Bunny is hiding behind daisies in the field. The Raccoon hides in a hole in the tree. The Baby Bear hides inside a log.

I would recommend this book for nursery aged children. It is perfect for children who are beginning to learn about animals as it guides them, with Peter, to each animal's respective home. The illustrator uses soft watercolors, and slightly cartoon-ish drawings to represent the animals

[Jamala Alkeshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

To start of with this book has a really good message to the children reading it, that reading is always an adventure and its ironic because this book shows the children that exact principle. It starts with a poem about the library calling it a "Magic Castle" mentioning the books as rows of word windows, meaning that there are all these windows in the library where you can jump into different worlds (different adventures). Then as the young boy opens a book, he hops into a game of hide and seek with some animals. From here on I really like the story because it is educational, you learn about the different animals and their homes. I think this is a great book for children, and it is one I would use in my future classroom or with my own children.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

A magoc reader book. I bought the entire set when my son was a baby.

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

early reading source for children, to learn about the placement of things