2 Great Bear Stories: The Bear Ate Your Sandwich and Goodnight Already!

The Bear Ate Your Sandwich, written and illustrated by Julia Sarcone-Roach.  So you left your sandwich alone and when you returned, you discovered that someone has gobbled it up.  Who was the culprit who devoured the tasty delight?  A narrator (unseen until the final 2 pages) spins a hilarious and unlikely convoluted yarn blaming a bear who somehow made a wild trek from its beloved forest all the way to the urban park bench where your sandwich sat, waiting to be eaten.  Using acrylic paint and pencil, Sarcone-Roach creates illustrations that are both comical and lovely, with striking spreads capturing the bear's journey in the back of the truck (packed with delicious berries) all the way to the park and then returning home in a boat.  The bear emerges as one delightful character, playing on swings, going down a slide, and also--quite dramatically--gulping down the sandwich.  The author/illustrator gives the reader a great surprise ending that shows just who this narrator actually is, and this reveal brings the book to a whole other level of fun cleverness.

Goodnight Already, written by Jory John and illustrated by Benji Davies.  Excellent comic timing is hard to pull off, which makes this hilarious look at a duck keeping its bear pal from going to sleep all the more impressive.  Davies' illustrations set the tone right away, with a lovable bear yawning, holding its pink stuffed bunny, on the title page.  A flip of the page shows a small house with a yellow light in its window on the left side of the book, and a much bigger house looking dark, ready for nighty night.  And then we turn the page and on the left, a bright yellow page shows a duck reading "101 Ways To Stay Awake" and drinking what is probably the strongest coffee in the world.  On the right side of the book, we see a more somber drawing of the bear telling the reader about how it could sleep for months.  What follows is an amusing conversation, written with finesse by Jory, between the two friends--the beleaguered bear keeps trying to sleep, and the persistent duck attempts to keep the bear awake.  The duck bombards the bear with questions like "Wanna play cards?" "Watch a movie?"  "Start a band?"  and the bear answers each query with "No."  The book has a great comical rhythm, and Davies shows the duck in various positions and guises.  After these rapid fire exchanges, there's a beat with the duck relenting...but not for long.  Fresh and funny from start to finish.