Moon bears, or Asiatic black bears, are named for the white moon-shaped blaze on their chests. Moon bears are seldom seen but their footprints, claw marks, hair, and bear nests high in the trees give us clues about how they live. Sadly, there are now more moon bears in captivity than in the wild, as these animals are being "farmed" for their commercially valuable bile.

A very well illustrated book that give the sense of what hibernation is for a Himalayan bear, especially when transition in color tones to demonstrate the bear in Winter time, then Spring (going from dark to light). In addition, pictures were displayed originally as a collage, combining drawings with real pictures to illustrate specific words selected to teach about natural phenomena, such as a monsoon, and nature around the Himalayas.

The first thing I was sure to mention was that the author, Guiberson, was the same person who wrote Ice Bears, a book about polar bears that we had read a few days before. Moon Bear is a charming book about an Asiatic black bear, waking from hibernation and searching for food, marking territory, and taking naps. Each page asks and answers a question. For example, “Who claws the tree trunks in the forest? Cautious moon bear does”. After reading a few pages, my students answered each question with “moon bear!”, and waited to hear what the book told them specifically what moon bear was doing. The illustrations are very interesting. It looks like the background on each page is illustrated using different cutouts of photographs. There is a lot of vocabulary in this book, many questions that I did not answer right away. I wanted to model for them the concept of not knowing something, and going to a source to find answers. We ended up making a list, and at the end of the book we went to the computer and looked up some of our questions. Any time I do not know the answer, or even if I do, I make a point to not be embarrassed by my ignorance. I want my students to be risk takers, and to have intellectual curiosity. We looked up poachers, loggers, marmots, monsoon, and beechnuts. I liked the repetitive nature of this book, which allowed for my children to play a part in the read aloud. The text, in a way, was predictable. They were able to make connections between moon bear and the polar bear from a story we read a few days prior. They had prior knowledge for this read aloud, and looking back, I wish I had read Moon Bear first. Moon Bear was far more appropriate for their age, and would have made for an easier transition into the topic of bears and hibernation. I would definitely read this book again. The children likes it, the text was appropriate and enjoyable, and I did not have to alter it to be more appropriate. The illustrations were interesting, and the book was short enough to allow for predictions, responses, and even a T graph at the end. I initially wanted to try a venn diagram, but felt that it would be too difficult for my kids at this point. We made a T graph on the white board to list differences between moon bear and the polar bear mother from Ice Bears. Moon bear's list included: black fur, eats berries, licks trees, and white stripe. The polar bear's list included: white fur, mean, carnivore, and big. They enjoyed Moon Bear and I passed it onto the other pre-kindergarten classrooms to read as a supplement to our letter “Bb” unit. They also said the read aloud went well.
If I taught older kids, I would still deem this book appropriate because of the informative pages in the back of the book, which show real pictures of moon bear and could spark a mini-research project in a 1st or 2nd grade classroom.

Moon Bears was a informative book about Black Bears. I think this story was great. I enjoyed the beautiful illustrations. I think the author did a good job showing readers the life of a black bear in their natural habitat. I thought the story was about one bear until the end when I realized they were actually talking about three bears. The bears in this story are rare and hardly ever seen. The story would be great for kids. I think it can expose them to an animal not spoken about to much. ( )

The character of Moon Bear was very intriguing and well developed, mostly because he was based off a real animal. Although this particular bear was depicted through pictures and not photographs, this story gave facts about the actual animal through a cute children’s story. The illustrations were very unique, because they were not typical drawings. Each page revealed the Moon Bear who was crafted out of layering different textures and colors. The story also included some real life textures, such as leaves or fur, which helped create a more realistic looking story. This repetitive pattern of asking a question and answering was interesting because it allowed the reader to see every side of this rare bear. The end of the story included a few pages about the bear in real life and how we, as the reader, can help to protect them. The author was able to take a cause important to her and create an interesting children’s book to get them interested in helping too. The main idea of this book was to get to know these bears, and I think the author did a great job at creating a unique story that I enjoyed very much. ( )