Welcome to Litsy!

"Bear�s search for himself doesn�t matter so much as the charm of Lavie�s storytelling voice as he narrates it . . . Erlbruch gives the bear big, puzzled-looking eyes and a lovable grin. He lives in a forest made of ornate trees seemingly lifted from vintage engravings, whose delicate lines play off Bear�s dumpy figure. Bear�s encounters with various characters�the Turtle Taxi, the Penultimate Penguin�feature gentle wordplay and Lewis Carroll�like paradoxes . . . Everything is new to Bear, and his discoveries will delight readers." --Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review "Erlbruch's playful, distinctive illustrations . . . are sublime." -- Kirkus Reviews "The volume is filled with surreal gags about prepositions and adverbs, cheerful absurdity, and down the rabbit hole�style musings." -- School Library Journal "It is mix between Alice in Wonderlands absurd characters and Shel Silverstein's poetic prose with a mix of the wonders of The Wizard of Oz . . . blended into a story that captures the idea of identity and so much more." -- Mrs. Mommy Booknerd "A joyful trio of language, picture, and wordplay, as accessible and delectable to a child as to an adult." --S�ddeutsche Zeitung (Germany's largest national daily newspaper) One day, a few minutes after Once Upon a Time, a bear awakes to find he has lost something very important: himself! He sets out into the Fabulous Forest to find himself, using only a few clues scrawled on a piece of paper: the bear he's looking for is a nice bear; he is a happy bear; and he's very handsome too! These sound like pretty good qualities to Bear, and so begins his memorable journey. With the help of Fabulous Forest critters like the Convenience Cow, the Lazy Lizard, and the Penultimate Penguin, Bear finds that he himself is just what he's been looking for all along: a nice, happy bear--and handsome too! As whimsical as Winnie-the-Pooh and as wryly comic as Klassen's bear who wants his hat back, The Bear Who Wasn't There joins a select crew of unusual bears who have captured the imagination of children for generations.