I Sure Am Glad to See You, Blackboard Bear

Blackboard Bear

by Martha Alexander

Little Anthony's bear is immensely helpful when he has to deal with other children who are teasing, selfish, or bullying.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Born in Georgia, Martha attended the Cincinnati Academy of Art, and lived in many places, including New York, Alaska, and Washington state, before settling in Honolulu, Hawaii. She had two children, eight grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

Reviews

[Khari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not exactly a book I would recommend.

A little boy is not treated fairly, then has a prank played on him and has his ice cream stolen. He draws out a big bear and uses him to punish the kids who stole his ice cream, make those who scared him jealous and uses him to draw out those that wouldn't share with him...but then acts in the same way as the original children and refuses to share. Petty revenge. This is the lesson we should be teaching our children, an eye for an eye. Brilliant.

Pure sarcasm there, by the way, just in case it wasn't obvious. What an awful message. It was presented in a boring way too.

Story: Narrative
Art: Meh
Price. $10.99

[Arrena Holyfield · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like the original- still not a book I would read to kids. The kids gets pulled and then turns around and does the same things that were done to him. Not a moral lesson in there.

[Melanie Hetrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book starts out with Anthony playing with Gloria. Only Gloria won't share her toys except the toy box full of junk. Anthony storms off to get ice cream telling Gloria she'll "be sorry." He's then teased by children who hide behind a bush and put a fake alligator in his path to scare him. They are also told they will "be sorry." Anthony finally makes it to the ice cream stand. However, once he leaves the store, his ice cream is stolen by Stewart.

Anthony ends up in some type of classroom setting where there is a bear drawn on the blackboard. This bear comes to life and climbs off the board. Anthony then takes him with him to get more ice cream, including some for this bear. Stewart shows up again and again steals Anthony's ice cream. But this time the blackboard bear is there to save him and make Stewart give back the ice cream and promise to buy him a new one to make up for the one he took before.

The story finishes up with Anthony playing with his blackboard bear and Gloria showing up to ask if they can be friends. They could share the toys they play with, she suggests. Anthony graciously agrees, except for his blackboard bear.

I find this story highly irritating. Anthony is apparently the child being picked on by bullies but his behavior is obnoxious to begin with. Plus he relies on some imaginary animal to save him from bullies? In today's world, where bullying is a huge problem this is absolutely not the way to work with this topic. To top off the whole story, Gloria shows up to ask if she and Anthony can be friends. She's willing to share everything. Anthony, instead of learning from Gloria's poor behavior, mirror's Gloria's earlier attitude: he'll share everything except his blackboard bear.

[Earl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though, my A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge was so 2011, I decided to continue it.

I'm loving Martha Alexander's illustrations for Blackboard Bear series. The lesson I got from "I Sure Am Glad to See You, Blackboard Bear" was to find a bigger bully to bully your bully. I'm pretty sure that's not what the author wanted.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worse that the first one. The kids are all mean and whiny. No morals, values, or lesson to teach. And it’s boring. Who even wrote this??

To start out with, Gloria is selfish. She tries to appear generous because she’s willing to share, but only her junk. Truth is though, I have to wonder how many times we do the same thing as adults. Also, the little boy is entirely ungrateful. I’m not suggesting people should be grateful to receive garbage, but we would do better to teach children to have a thankful spirit in all things rather than the haughty attitude displayed here. Then he decides to get even by finding something he can wave in front of her, ice cream.

But his ice cream gets stolen by a nasty tempered bully. So, he does the only obvious thing, gets more to wave in front of the bully along with a bigger bully to teach the bully a lesson. No time to be bothered with a gracious spirit, forgiveness, or setting an example through kindness here! Also, no time for honest confrontation of bad behavior, much better to just beat him at his own nasty game!

In the end, he goes back to Gloria, who has had a sudden change of heart now that he has something cool too, but again, best to teach her a lesson by beating her at her own game rather than responding with kindness and generosity. The moral of the story is, take what you can, keep what you have, and the biggest bully comes out on top.

Too bad, such a wasted opportunity for so many life lessons that are hard to learn anyway! I have to wonder if the author really thought this through…

[MarineCAT · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story along with other Martha Alexander stories about the blackboard bear were favorites of mine as a child. The illustrations are great and this story is interesting because the boy has a friend that comes to life straight from the chalk board. The story over the others is really different because the boy draws the other neighborhood kids, and the bear eats them.

[Jane Frook · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would only read this book with my grandchildren if I used it to teach them the right way to act and respond to others. Left alone this book teaches retaliation - treat others as they have treated you, not something I would want them to learn.

[Ashlyne Cornejo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, I do not like this book because the book is based on a kid being bullied and bullying is not a nice thing to do. One thing that did confuse me a little bit was the bear; I understand kids have their own creative imagination so that is what the author meant to do. But my thing is, is that the bear came out and had the ability to pick up the bully by the hood of his hoodie makes me question or not that if it was his imagination or not.

[Sarah Stumphf · Rating 4 out of 5]

My two year old and my ten year old both enjoyed hearing me read this to them as they looked at the pictures. They couldn't believe this kid threw away his teddy bear, but they thought the ending was pretty funny.

[Garrett Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this could be a lesson learning book to help students realize you never know what your fellow students have gone through throughout the day so be as nice as possible to them. A very easy read for younger students!

[Alice]

Imaginary friend

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming children's story of the 1970s that teaches children that selfishness should be repaid in kind.