Bears make themselves at home in a comfy cottage. They fish, enjoy evening fires, and even invite lots of other critters to join them.
OK, you’ve probably figured out I’m writing about a wonderful new children’s book. The illustrations in kids’ books today are amazing, and you will be delighted and entertained by Karel Hayes’ drawings in The Spring Visitors, published by Down East Books.
Karel is a watercolor artist and illustrator whose work has been displayed all over the country. She’s also illustrated 10 books. This is the 5th book in her Visitor’s series.
This family of bears hibernate in a waterfront cottage, and decide to stay when they wake up in the spring. My favorite illustration is one showing the cottage full of visitors, from moose to racoons and owls to foxes. It is magnificent!
As the cottage owners arrive that summer, the bears exit out the back door. But the owners enter to find their cottage full of rabbits, while the family of bears sit above the cottage on a stone outcropping, enjoying muffins and tea in cups taken from the cottage.
I can’t wait to share this book with my 4-year-old granddaughter, who loves to draw and who saw her first moose up to our north woods camp last summer. I guess this summer we’ll have to find her a bear!