It’s Busy Down in the Woods Today: Friends to Meet, Places to Explore, and Over 100 Things to Find (Brown Bear Wood)

Brown Bear Wood is a fun place for children to visit. The opening spread introduces the townsfolk, including Professor Owl (teacher), Mama Deer, Papa Mouse (doctors), and many more. This is followed by a spread about Getting Ready for the Day with a wonderful illustration of the very busy woodland, a poem about morning, and a list of things to find in the illustration. A visit to the Hop in Bunny’s Bakery with lyrical rhyme to explain what goes on there is next. This is the pattern throughout the book, with six spreads for different times of the day and six spreads for different places in the woods.

Poet Rachel Piercey and illustrator Frey Hartas have built quite a franchise with their Brown Bear Wood books. This is a lovely addition, sure to keep little ones listening to the sweet poetry and searching the gorgeous illustrations for all the details listed. The only nit to pick here is that most of the text is in a common serif font, but words scattered throughout are in a cursive font, so if you have older kids reading to younger ones, it might be a problem.