My Never Ending List

What? The beginning of this book had me wondering if this should really be a children’s book but by the end, I was laughing and loving the pictures. I love the hard cardstock pages of this children’s book, the illustrations and it was Bruce’s gestures and attitude that had me laughing out loud many times but the beginning, I thought it was cruel. Perhaps it is just me though. Bruce is a bear who likes to eat eggs and this grumpy bear gets his eggs from all the animals of the forest. Finding recipes online, he cooks these eggs in these recipes. I found this part mean and heartbreaking, the way that Bruce steals the eggs from the forest animals. These eggs are the forest animal’s children. As the story continues, bear is hankering to make this elaborate dish and as he collects the ingredients from around the forest he visits Mrs. Goose for her eggs. As he starts to create the dish, his oven breaks down. Ready to resume cooking again, Bruce returns only to discover that the eggs are now goslings. These goslings believe that he is their mother. Mrs. Goose has headed South and the goslings follow Bruce even when he tries to abandon them. Grumpy Bruce and these sweet goslings make for a great story. As they mature, Bruce tries to teach these “children” how to be geese and I loved this part of the story. The ending is sweet and the illustrations throughout are fantastic as Bruce attempts his new role.