Bear's Lost Glasses

The best jokes are the simplest ones, and the joke at the heart of Leo Timmers’ new book is perfectly simple and very good indeed. Bear has lost his glasses, but we can all see them perched on top of his head, the round, bright red frames a wonderfully comic image. Bear decides he must have left them at Giraffe’s house and sets off.  Along the way, he notices all sorts of things he’s never seen there before, including a deer, a crocodile, an elephant and a flamingo. Again, readers can see that they’re really a tree, a green bush, a grey boulder and a pink flower. Bear even mistakes Giraffe for a snake. Once that misunderstanding is sorted, the two friends retrace Bear’s steps, as he’s keen to share all the unusual things he’s seen. When they’re not there, he decides, ‘There must be something wrong with my glasses’, and sure enough, when he takes them off, the world is suddenly again full of unusual things. Perhaps we should all look at the world differently occasionally? Leo Timmers’ timing is impeccable, his characters wonderfully expressive and this simple story will stand repeated readings.