A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

My boys are 8 and 6 and we laughed often, bonded with the characters and loved this wonderful, open-ended book. I started reading it to them in bed on a Sunday morning and we just kept going until it "finished" .....something this book does not really do. A great read on a rainy Sunday.

Very amusing and unique. Perfect story to read out loud to your kids or grandkids. Its' originality is very refreshing.I loved it even as an adult. Great for schools.

A memorable book. Bought it as a keepsake for my son because he enjoyed it so much as I read it to him.

I really liked this book. It was like totally awesome except for the last sentence. It didn't finish the book I thought.

Really fun little book for kids. Fairly easy reading for third grade or so - nice story and a fun little read.

great book, long, keeps my 6 yr old captivated during bedtime stories.

Great story for 7 year old. Good book.

love

I may have missed my calling in life and be wasted in dull IT jobs, because if this is the going rate for what qualifies as, according to the reviews, a 'charming journey of discovery', 'rich in atmosphere' and a 'very special' book then I should take up writing kids' books myself, because I would be hard pressed to do worse. This has to be the dullest and frankly most bizarre book for kids ever. I'll summarise the first half of the book for you, to save you the pain of reading it: a boy gets onto a boat, rowed by a bear, and they row about aimlessly. NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. Nothing at all. This is supposed to be interesting? Charming? Engaging? Even my 6 year old son was laughing at the stupidity of it all as I read him another chapter in which nothing took place. When the highlights are the book's two protagonists playing 'I Spy' when they can see nothing except sea and sky, you know you are on a sticky wicket. At least stuff happened in the second half of the book, but by then I had lost the will to live and couldn't have given a toss if the end of the book (spoiler alert coming!) saw the two main characters, in whom you are supposed to be invested by this time, drifting off to their inevitable deaths by drowning and/or starvation and/or thirst as their boat is gone, their supplies used up and their hopes of reaching somewhere (anywhere! please!) faded to dust. And that, folks, is exactly what happens. So, you can tuck your child in at night and rest assured that rather than giving them laughter and fun in their childhood and stimulating their imagination, you have started subliminally to press home the inevitable reality of adulthood and life on planet earth being a pointless, directionless slog that will inevitably end in death. Sleep tight.

Book review written by P5 Dallas Primary School.This book is about a boy who goes on an adventure on a boat with a bear.We had mixed feelings about the book. It was a great story, we enjoyed reading it together, it was a bit repetitive but overall a good book! Charlie prefers more exciting stories, Sammy prefers books with more action but Rose enjoyed the story very much.William enjoyed the ending because it made him imagine what happens next but Rose found it a little unsatisfying.We recommend the book if you are not looking for lots of excitement. It’s a calm book.

lovely gentle story. beautiful illustrations. I've heard it described as Beckett for kids but I think that makes it sound weirder than it is. I think its just that its a story where not much happens but in a really brilliant way. For me its about parent child relationships and understands that sense that kids think parents know what they're doing and parents pretend that they know what they are doing but none of us really know where we're going.

Beautifully written, completely enthralling story of the growing friendship between a boy and a bear - with the bear’s boat playing an equally important part! It’s difficult to describe as it doesn’t fit in to any category , but all the children I’ve read it to have loved it.

I have just finished reading this book with my 9-year old daughter. Everything about the book is great: the cover, the story, the illustrations and the language. Some have criticised the sometimes repetitive nature of the language, but that gives an almost poetic nature to some of the passages. Others consider that the vocabulary is too advanced for the average 8-11 year old, but the bear's slightly old fashioned language adds to the book and your child may actually learn a few new words. I was gripped by the story - it may appear that not a lot happens, but actually looking back there are quite a lot of incidents and adventures and the changing relationship between the boy and the bear is touching - and we couldn't wait to find out how it finished.