My Bear Griz

Narrated in the first person, this handsomely produced landscape picture book is about the relationship between the narrator Billy, a small boy, and his best friend Griz, the Grizzly Bear.  Griz’s bulk is such that the size differential between him and Billy is striking as Billy curls up on his flank to sleep or sits on his back for a ride.  At the finis it is revealed that Griz is actually Billy’s toy bear, transformed in his imagination into this powerful yet benign creature.  The power of the story lies in part in the young narrator’s implicit mastery of what is in reality a powerfully ferocious wild animal.

While Griz is so large that on occasion only a portion of his anatomy fits on the page, Suzanne McGinness’s confidently scribbly ink line and watercolour on pages with (unusually) a gloss finish convey the texture of his fur and the hidden power of the body it clads. Billy appears puny beside him. The minimal text in large typeface makes this an ideal book for beginner readers as well as for reading aloud.  Pencil ‘graffiti’ on the pages written by Billy provides an additional commentary.  An accomplished debut from this new artist.