Acclaimed British illustrator and children's author Raymond Briggs, whose picture-books The Snowman and Father Christmas are considered modern classics, relates the story of a young girl and her visit with a bear in this oversized title. Tucked into bed one night by her mother, Tilly finds herself being visited by a massive white polar bear, who somehow gets into bed with her, and who hangs around the house on the following day. Tilly's indulgent parents humor her talk of the bear, clearly not believing in him, but Tilly herself finds that she must work hard to clean up after this ursine visitor. Despite that fact, she is distraught when the visit comes to an end...

Despite having enjoyed the books from Briggs that I have read, I don't seem to have sought out more of his titles, so I am thankful to my friend Hilary for recommending this one to me. It pairs an engaging, perceptively-told story with gorgeous illustrations. The format alternates between paneled pages, which look almost like a cartoon or graphic novel in structure, and illustrations that take up an entire page. The narrative explores how Tilly perceives and interacts with her visitor vs. how her parents perceive him, and how they perceive Tilly's stories of him, offering an amusing but warmhearted commentary on the imaginative lives of children, and how those lives are often received by the adults in their lives. Was the bear real? Clearly he was, in this story, but Briggs invites us to consider the truth that even if he had not been corporeal, the bear would still have been "real." Recommended to picture-book lovers looking for engaging stories about children and their secret lives, or featuring polar bears (always so oddly benign in children's literature). ( )

As usual with Raymond Briggs, this is an odd children's books. It's partly about a bear, and adults indulging a child's imagination, and how it's possible to love somebody who's difficult and mourn when they leave you. But my daughter loves it because she loves the comic strip format, and there's a bear! And it pees on the floor! It's unfortunately hard to read aloud. ( )