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Usborne First Reading Level 2
How Bear Lost His Tail
About the Book: UFR Level-2 How Bear Lost His Tail A Native American folktale retold for beginner readers ready to tackle more complicated storylines and sentence structures. All the animals in the forest admire Bears tail, but Bear thinks it is a nuisance... Includes fun puzzles to try after the story.
- GenresPicture BooksChildrens
32 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2012
2 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Bowman
134 books3 followersLucy Bowman grew up in a village in Cheshire, where she spent her time having adventures outdoors or reading about them in books. She completed a degree in American Studies and joined Usborne to write books on all kinds of topics, from Antarctica to space to games and puzzles.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 28, 2024
I received this lovely book as part of my teatimebookshop subscription, and my 5 yo loved it and the puzzles at the end of the book, he just kept asking if there were more puzzles to solve 🥰 As someone who did watercolor in the past I really appreciated the illustrations, they were done with a lot of taste and you could see it’s real watercolor painting.
October 30, 2023
Quite a decent one this, but if jeopardy involved, and the notion that you shouldn’t always listen to your friends.
December 6, 2020
The cover doesn't do justice to the illustrations in the story. Many of them are breathtaking in their use of color and lighting. Also, the bear is really stupid because he could have controlled the movements of his tail to avoid the problems that it caused for him. I like that the fox's prank was very clever though.
July 20, 2019
A fox tricked a bear into losing his tail
March 16, 2023
Lovely illustrations and a good story on being careful of playing tricks on your friends. And to watch out for others and their intentions. Still a sweet read for young kids.
January 19, 2026
So that's how bears got their short tails.
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October 13, 2015Title: How Bear Lost His Tail
Author: Lucy Bowman
Illustrator: Ciaran Duffy
Genre: Non-European Folktale
Theme(s): Trickery, teaching the importance of being humble, jealousy
Opening line/sentence: Once upon a time, Bear had a long, thick tail.
Brief Book Summary: This book tells the story of why bears don’t have long bushy tails anymore. The book says fox and Bear were friends, and Bear always talked about his big, beautiful tail. Fox was jealous and tired of hearing about it so he convinced Bear that he could catch fish in the winter if he put his tail in a hole in the ice. The ice eventually freezes around bear’s tale and fox comes out of nowhere, telling Bear to jump up cause he’s got a fish! When he does, the ice rips his tail and he is left with a short stub of a tail.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Based on a Native American folk legend, this wonderful book tells the story of how Bear lost his tail. Beautiful, original illustrations bring the story to life. It features easy-to-read text, with fun comprehension puzzles at the end. It is a charming addition to the "Usborne First Reading" series, developed in consultation with Alison Kelly, Principal Lecturer and reading specialist at the University of Roehampton.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Waterstones UK Reviews
These well-loved traditional stories have been carefully retold using phonics and familiar language so that children can read them for themselves. This Level 6 collection contains these 4 enjoyable stories: The Frog Prince, Monkey's Magic Pipe, The Bear Who Lost His Tail, Yoshi The Stonecutter. The Traditional Tales series offers: *A clear phonics progression providing lots of practice to build reading confidence and success. *A range of tales from around the world - a perfect introduction to different cultures and traditions. *A rich selection of stories and illustrations to capture your child's imagination and inspire a love of reading.
Response to Two Professional Reviews: These reviews seemed to like the story. They like the way it’s told and the illustrations used. They comment on the easy to read text and how the story tells of a historical “tradition” in a way that children want to read.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: This book uses watercolor paintings as illustrations, giving a soft, relaxing feel to each page. There are puzzles included at the end of the book, which can help check for understanding or just play games, should the teacher want to use them. The language in this book is also appropriate for young children, because it tells the story but in a way that children can easily comprehend.
Consideration of Instructional Application: A possible idea for a lesson using this book is to have your students first take a poll if they think this story’s true. The ones who said no can write/explain what they think happened to bear’s tails to explain why they’re short. The ones who said they think it’s true could take a chance on their own explaining why they think another animal looks like it does. For example, why cheetahs have spots, why fish can’t live on land, etc.
Author: Lucy Bowman
Illustrator: Ciaran Duffy
Genre: Non-European Folktale
Theme(s): Trickery, teaching the importance of being humble, jealousy
Opening line/sentence: Once upon a time, Bear had a long, thick tail.
Brief Book Summary: This book tells the story of why bears don’t have long bushy tails anymore. The book says fox and Bear were friends, and Bear always talked about his big, beautiful tail. Fox was jealous and tired of hearing about it so he convinced Bear that he could catch fish in the winter if he put his tail in a hole in the ice. The ice eventually freezes around bear’s tale and fox comes out of nowhere, telling Bear to jump up cause he’s got a fish! When he does, the ice rips his tail and he is left with a short stub of a tail.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Based on a Native American folk legend, this wonderful book tells the story of how Bear lost his tail. Beautiful, original illustrations bring the story to life. It features easy-to-read text, with fun comprehension puzzles at the end. It is a charming addition to the "Usborne First Reading" series, developed in consultation with Alison Kelly, Principal Lecturer and reading specialist at the University of Roehampton.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Waterstones UK Reviews
These well-loved traditional stories have been carefully retold using phonics and familiar language so that children can read them for themselves. This Level 6 collection contains these 4 enjoyable stories: The Frog Prince, Monkey's Magic Pipe, The Bear Who Lost His Tail, Yoshi The Stonecutter. The Traditional Tales series offers: *A clear phonics progression providing lots of practice to build reading confidence and success. *A range of tales from around the world - a perfect introduction to different cultures and traditions. *A rich selection of stories and illustrations to capture your child's imagination and inspire a love of reading.
Response to Two Professional Reviews: These reviews seemed to like the story. They like the way it’s told and the illustrations used. They comment on the easy to read text and how the story tells of a historical “tradition” in a way that children want to read.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: This book uses watercolor paintings as illustrations, giving a soft, relaxing feel to each page. There are puzzles included at the end of the book, which can help check for understanding or just play games, should the teacher want to use them. The language in this book is also appropriate for young children, because it tells the story but in a way that children can easily comprehend.
Consideration of Instructional Application: A possible idea for a lesson using this book is to have your students first take a poll if they think this story’s true. The ones who said no can write/explain what they think happened to bear’s tails to explain why they’re short. The ones who said they think it’s true could take a chance on their own explaining why they think another animal looks like it does. For example, why cheetahs have spots, why fish can’t live on land, etc.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews