Picture Books - For the Love of Bears

Chilly or stormy nights demand a steaming cup of cocoa or tea and a good book to chase away the howling wind. That’s why I’ve put together a picture book post on some of my favorite characters, who happen to all be bears.

There’s something so inviting and soothing about a bear, their cozy fur, big paws, generous girth and the fact that they love naps. What’s not to love about bears! I guess I’m not the only one as the  New York Times just reviewed several books for children this past Sunday and I'm including the article In The Company of Bears by Pamela Paul because these books sound adorable and worth checking out.

One of my favorite bear books of all time is We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. It's a classic tale that never gets old. I love making the sounds with my kids as we read this book aloud. Don't you?

A series favorite of ours began with A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton (Candlewick Press, 2008) and the latest book out is The Sniffles for Bear. If you've never read this series than you're missing out on one of the best friendships to come along since Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad series. Mouse and Bear are the perfect companions. Most of the time! These books are clever and funny and touching.

And what about the gorgeous illustrated dancing polar bears in Nancy Tillman's On the Night You Were Born (Feiwel & Friends, 2006) or the black bear in Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You (Feiwel & Friends, 2010) Magical. Whimsical. Heartfelt books. You may have seen some of them this past Christmas during the holiday season as they were featured in Kohl's stores across the nation.

I’ve always been drawn to bears in part because of their massive size and strength. No one messes with a bear and it’s one of the reasons why they make such good characters in picture books. They’re protectors. But sometimes they need protecting in real life and that’s why I was moved to write the picture book A Voice for the Spirit Bears: The Simon Jackson Story, about a boy who has dedicated his life to saving the ghosts of the North. To learn about these rare bears and Simon Jackson, you can visit the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition and lend your voice to the campaign, too.

Photo courtesy of D. Simon Jackson

In closing, do you have any favorite books with bear characters you enjoy reading? Care to share? Or maybe you're writing your own "bear" book. And if you are, I say good for you! I think there's always room for one more. Let me know your favorite bear books, I'm sure there's a few out there that I've missed over the years.

Also if you have the time, check out my reviews at ReaderKidz on books celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. here and books celebrating the Chinese New Year here. You might even find a few new ones to enrich your library.

Doctor #3, please come forward

Today was our 2nd Second Opinion. So, our 3rd neurologist to "interview" in 5.5 years. We've had the same neurologist since birth, but wanted to venture out and see if there were some other brain-guys out there that had other opinions…or at least better communication skills. (Don't get me wrong, I actually really LIKE our original neurologist, but we just never felt like we knew exactly what was going on or why he was doing anything. It's actually really sad and hard for me to let go of any doctor that I like…that's a big deal in the world of constant medical care.) So, today was Children's Medical Center (the Plano office) to see what they had to say. I need to take a moment and say that this was the HARDEST office to get into. In fact, dear family friends worked their magic to get us expedited, and it still took (what seemed like) forever. So, we meet with the doctor and he had a totally different approach. (Joe is wonderful and has been taking off work to do all of this with me…pretty sure we are going to burn through all of his vacation the first half of this year just for medical appointments…still a lot to do in the next few months!) As you can see I took all of my notes and reports and labs and more notes (these are just her neurological files…or things that relate to neuro, the girl needs an officeassistant! Luckily, we have JoBeth!) Dr. K lets us tell him the whole history and then reads some reports and gives us his take. He's very well spoken and explains things well. With each doctor we are learning more and more as they each have a different style and way of explaining…actually very helpful. After a lot of discussion on what we've seen and done already, he suggests that we go the route of the Ketogenic Diet, which has been known to slow down or stop the advance of seizures. We've heard about the diet before, but never gone into as much detail as we did today. We will meet with a nutrionist at Children's who specializes in the diet for children, andwill answer all of our concerns and questions. We aren't even sure how it will work for Ella since she has an odd eating pattern and can't chew and consume her food like a typical person. Then we will have a very extensive blood test done (complete with metabolic testing) to make sure that her body is capable and safe to be put through ketosis. It's really hard on a lot of the body and is even started in the hospital for 3-4 days before you can go home on the regimen. Then there are once a week appointments, which then get further apart, but with daily monitoring and testing. This can go on for 2-3 years, or longer, if the treatment works.

So….that's one option. We still have the option from Cook Children's to do the testing and check to see if we are a candidate for epilepsy surgery.

We have decided to check into both routes. We will begin the education and testing for the diet to see if it's something we can even do for her. Then in March (Spring Break), we will check into Cook Children's for a 4-day EEG and PET/MRI scans to see what exactly is going on with her brain when the seizures happen. We feel like doing both is our best way to collect all the information we need to make the best decision. If she qualifies for the diet then we will most likely go that direction first and then follow up with looking into surgery if the diet doesn't seem to be curbing the seizures.

Currently we haven't had a full seizure since last Thursday, 5 days, and we'd like to go back to only expecting 1 every 4-6 weeks. Then we'll have some time to make some good, educated, decisions.

Thank you for all your prayers!!