09 Jun Fun with the Brown Bear Books
The Bear Books by Bill Martin and Eric Carle
Do you know the classic picture book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin and Eric Carle? The words in the book make a pattern, which is a great chant to do with your child. “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a redbird looking at me. Redbird, redbird, what do you see…?” Brown Bear, Brown Bear is also available at the library in Panjabi, Somali, and Turkish.
In fact, Bill Martin and Eric Carle teamed up to create a whole series of similar books featuring different animals!
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? is about endangered animals, like water buffalo and green sea turtles.
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? is about wild animals you might find at a zoo, such as flamingos, zebras, and elephants.
Finally, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? features American animals, like flying squirrels and mountain goats.
Things To Try!
Watch and listen to Bill Martin read Brown Bear, Brown Bear and talk about how he got the idea for the book. Then you can try some of these activities:
- Make animal sounds! Polar Bear, Polar Bear is specifically about sounds, but the entire series has animals that make interesting and fun sounds to play around with.
- Play I SPY with your child. “Traci, Traci, what do you see? Point to something… yellow!” “I see a banana, what do you see? Point to something… blue!”
- Create your own book by taking a couple of pieces of paper and connecting them on one side. Any kind of blank paper will work. You can connect the pages with staples like this, or poke holes and use yarn, or whatever you have around! Let your child make a version of their own favorite animals using crayons, markers, or a pencil.
- Move like the animals. Can you lumber like a bear, stand like a flamingo, and fly like a bird?
Read or Listen to The Books
Currently, you can use the library’s curbside service to check out the print books. Put them on hold online, and we will call you to arrange pickup. They are also available as an audiobook on Overdrive/Libby as Brown Bear and Friends, in English and Spanish. The English audiobook is read by Gweneth Paltrow, and includes an interview with Bill Martin Jr.
