Grizzly Ben by Alan Dapré

Grizzly Ben is an amazing story about a boy called Ben, who absolutely loves grizzly bears. They cover his walls, his floors and his curtains. When it’s his birthday, he only wants one thing… A REAL GRIZZLY BEAR but when he unwraps his presents will he find one?

A cuddly bear sparks an unexpected series of events when Ben decides to teach cuddly bear how to be a grizzly. Bit by bit, as Ben got more frustrated, he starts to get a little grizzly himself. Alone in the forest, Ben struggles to calm down till he finds a comforting friend who had been watching from the trees.

I read this story with my nephew (4) and he really enjoyed pretending to be Ben, stomping around like a bear. Like Ben, my nephew has a favourite teddy bear that goes EVERYWHERE with him. He made the connection that the teddy bear helped Ben stay calm and then we had to read Grizzly Ben again so that teddy could listen.

Alan Dapré has done an amazing job of encapsulating the frustration that young children feel when things don’t go their way and how they can transform into angry little creatures that will go on a rampage! It was really fun reading about Ben becoming a bear and then how the thing that had made him angry had also been the help he needed to calm down. I think I will be re reading this for many years to come with both my nephew and the children I work with..