Can't you sleep, Little Bear?

"I don't like the dark," said Little Bear. "What dark?" said Big Bear. "The dark all around us," said Little Bear. In this tender account of a sleepless night in the bear cave, Big Bear sets out with all his patience and understanding to show Little Bear that the dark is nothing to be afraid of. When all the lanterns in the cave aren't enough to quell Little Bear's troubled emotions, Big Bear offers--in a final loving gesture--nothing less than the bright yellow moon and the twinkling stars! More comforting than even the best of lullabies, this bedtime story is destined to become a classic.

Author Notes

Martin Waddell was born April 10, 1941, in Belfast, Ireland. He always wanted to be a professional soccer player. After having played for junior teams in Ireland, he left school at fifteen and held a variety of jobs, including working at a publishing company and as a night switchboard operator for a taxi company.

Waddell is now one of the most prolific and successful contemporary children's writers, with more than one hundred books to his credit, some of them under his pseudonym Catherine Sefton.

He won the 1986 Other Award, for his book Starry Night, which was also a runner up for The Guardian Children¿s Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the Young Observer Teenage Fiction Prize. He has twice won the Smarties Book Prize, for Farmer Duck and Can't You Sleep Little Bear? He also won the 1989 Kurt Mascher Award for The Park In The Dark, the 1990 Bets Book For Babies for Rosie¿s Babies and has been shortlisted for the 1992 Smarties Book Prize for Along The Lonely Road.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

PreS-- This warm, charming look at a small bear's fear of the dark is right on target for the preschool set. As Big Bear sits by the cozy fire trying to read, Little Bear, frightened of ``the dark all around us,'' cannot fall asleep. Sympathetic Big Bear lights lanterns in several sizes, attempting to banish the dark from the corners of their cave, but Little Bear wants more. Finally, when he is taken outside, cuddled close, and shown a full moon and twinkling stars, sleep comes instantly. Big Bear's compassion for his small charge is most evident in his loving facial expressions and in the warmth of the full-page watercolor and soft pencil illustrations. Blue arched borders around pages showing indoor scenes give the impression of looking into the cave from the dark outside; they provide a clear contrast to the wide-open snowy woodland settings at the book's beginning and end. Little Bear is the epitome of everychild, persistently (but endearingly) pestering for a little more attention and one last hug. The soft banter between the two characters, combined with a touch of repetitive phrasing, add to the book's strong child appeal. It's bound to become a beloved bedtime ritual in many households. --Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Break out the candles and cake: this season, old favorites mark special occasions in an array of anniversary editions. A gold-embossed cover and a limited-edition print suitable for framing embellish the 10th-anniversary edition of Can't You Sleep Little Bear? by Martin Waddell, illus. by Barbara Firth. PW wrote of this tale of Big Bear and exuberant toddler Little Bear settling down on a wintry night, "Move over, Goodnight Moon. Margaret Wise Brown's enduring bedtime classic may have found a worthy successor." (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Publisher's Weekly Review