The Three Little Sun Bears (Vietnamese - English): Ba Chú Gấu Chó Nhỏ (Language Lizard Bilingual World of Stories)

by Anneke Forzani

"The story, both familiar and fresh, is a clever example of how fables can enlarge our world view." - A. Ashbrook, Librarian, Long Hill, NJ How will The Three Little Sun Bears escape from the ferocious Siberian tiger? Set in the tropical rainforest in Asia, readers of all ages will enjoy this clever retelling of The Three Little Pigs. This book is available in English-only and many bilingual editions and includes teacher resources and English audio. This book is part of the Language Lizard World of Stories collection. These adventures are set in diverse areas and cultures around the world. The companion book in this collection is The Three Little Howlers by Anneke Forzani .

Genres: Picture Books

30 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2022

Reviews

[Julie]

A sweet take on the story with little sun bears! Lazy, sleepy bears in the rainforest. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the bears told in the taunting replies the bears had to the tiger “not by the…” I also liked the ending where the bears actually showed some kindness to the tiger. I enjoyed the illustrations, especially how they drew the tiger.

I learned that sun bears live in tropical rainforests of Asia and are the smallest of bears. I think I’ve seen them at the Honolulu zoo as well. Again the book ends with a page teaching about the animals in the book.

[Jane]

The Three Little Sun Bears appears to be a take on the traditional tale of The Three Little Pigs. The three sun bears build their home and then the Siberian tiger comes after them. Retellings of traditional tales can be fun. Anneke Forzani chose Asian animals. Teachers will appreciate that an audio version as well as a lesson plan and resources are available online.
Peter Schoenfeld chose a cartoon-type style for the illustrations. I would have liked to see illustrations that were a little more realistic. These animals may not be familiar for some children and it would have been nice for them to actually be able to visualize the animal.
The Three Little Sun Bears would be appropriate for a K-12 Christian school library. It could be an addition to the picture book section.
Because there are multiple languages available as well as an audio version, The Three Little Sun Bears could be used in an ESL classroom.
I received a complimentary copy of The Three Little Sun Bears. This is my honest review.

[Annie Dee Reads Romance]

Language Lizard does a wonderful job of publishing worldly stories that all children can relate to. The Three Little Sun Bears is no exception. Available in a wide variety of languages, this is a retelling of The Three Little Pigs, using 3 sun bears and a predatory Siberian tiger. All of us remember the line from the Three Little Pigs, "not by the hairs on my chinny, chin, chin!" and this book has a great bear equivalent! (I won't spoil it for you)

The pictures are bright and colorful, and children will love them! A short piece of back matter also gives information about the animals referenced in the book.

I recommend for kids PreK-2. Thank you to Language Lizard for providing me with a review copy.

[Anna]

I liked it! The story is basically like the classic story, The 3 Little Pigs, but instead of pigs, they're sun bears, and instead of a wolf, it's a Siberian tiger. The illustrations are alright. They're a bit animated which is fine. Overall I liked the book and hope children will like it as well. There are some facts about sun bears and Siberian tigers at the end of the story which I found to be really cool. I learned something new! Had no idea sun bears exist.

The book I read was Ukrainian - English, but it's not in the Goodreads database. I tried adding it and failed. I'm not liking this new way of adding books to the system.

[Angela]

Tutti noi conosciamo I Tre Porcellini. Una piccola storia che ci viene insegnata fin da quando siamo piccoli, in cui gli animali vengono utilizzati anche per rappresentarci il più possibile.
Ma cosa succede se ci ritroviamo a raccontare questa storia a dei bambini provenienti da altre parti del mondo? Come può essere una storia impattante se non conoscono lupi e maiali, né tantomeno la differenza tra i materiali come paglia, legno e mattoni?

Ecco che viene in nostro soccorso questo libro, scritto appositamente per un pubblico asiatico. Perché in fondo, un maiale poco ha di diverso da un orsetto malese se la morale della favola é sempre la stessa.
Anche se non ho amato particolarmente lo stile di scrittura, il messaggio che trasmette é di fondamentale importanza non solo per i bambini, ma anche per gli adulti: riesce infatti a scardinare il concetto dei libri di animali come sostituti dei libri multiculturali, in quanto gli animali stessi dipendono da una cultura di riferimento.
Grazie all'autrice per avermi regalato questo momento di crescita personale.
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Ho ricevuto questo libro dall'autrice stessa per il Multicultural Children's Book Day 2022 (28/01/2022) ed ho scelto di condividere la recensione proprio per far arrivare a più persone possibili questi piccoli imput di riflessione. #ReadYourWorld