How to Eat Like a Bear

Eat Like a Bear
by April Pulley Sayre; illus. by Steve Jenkins
32 Pages; ages 4 - 8
Henry Holt & Co, 2013

The bears in our neck of the woods love to eat sunflower seeds and suet. They'll rip the covers off the honeybee hives, swipe the can of birdseed right off the porch, and have no qualms about riffling through the garbage cans for left over lo mein.

But that's not the way they eat in the natural world. April Pulley Sayre shows a year of seasonal bear meals, beginning in April when bears wake up hungry. What's for breakfast?
"Bushes? Bare. No berries there." So where will bear find food? Green stems growing above the snow; the carcass of a bison or deer that died in winter. In May it's dandelions, sedges, slugs and ants. In June it's trout... and July maybe some roots.

The brown bear wanders through the months, digging in, digging down with paw and claw. By fall it's time to fatten up and find a den before the snows come.

The illustrations - torn and cut paper - add texture... you can almost feel the shaggy fur of the brown bear. The back pages are filled with additional information about bears, the food they eat, hibernation, and scientists who study bears.

Today is STEM Friday - head over to the STEM Friday blog to see what other people are talking about in science. But watch out for hungry bears! Review copy provided by publisher.