The Grizzly Itch

A bear and a beaver star in Victoria Cassanell’s debut picture book, which celebrates teamwork, friendship and the great outdoors. Bear wakes up from his long winter sleep with an unBEARable itch, a GRIZZLY itch that’s impossible to reach. He heads out to his favourite tree for a good scratch only to find a queue of itchy bears. When it’s finally his turn, disaster – the tree crashes to the ground thanks not to the bears, but to the beaver at its foot. Together, Bear and Beaver search for another tree, unsuccessfully and at some cost to Bear – a glorious, surprising and very funny sequence of illustration shows him fall from a tree into the river below with an enormous spash. All ends happily – of course – as the two friends find a lovely way to scratch that itch. This is an extremely impressive debut, an accomplished and very enjoyable piece of picture book storytelling. Bear and Beaver exude character – even from the back – and the pacing of the story, the variety of image and perspective makes each turn of the page a reward. This will more than stand up to repeated readings, and hopefully there will be more adventures to come for this odd couple.