Mother Goose Bruce

by Ryan T. Higgins

48 pages – ages 3+

Published by Disney-Hyperion on November 24, 2015

Theme- Family/adoption

Genre- Fiction

Opening and Synopsis- Opening Lines:

“Bruce was a bear who lived all by himself.
He was a grump.”

Synopsis from GoodReads: “Bruce the bear likes to keep to himself. That, and eat eggs. But when his hard-boiled goose eggs turn out to be real, live goslings, he starts to lose his appetite. And even worse, the goslings are convinced he’s their mother. Bruce tries to get the geese to go south, but he can’t seem to rid himself of his new companions. What’s a bear to do?“

What I Thought- I LOVED this book. The opening is great – Bruce is a grump – just look at him. Everything about Higgins’ artwork  lets you know how grumpy Bruce is.

Speaking of the artwork, it is phenomenal! It tells so much more of the story and really conveys the feeling of the whole book. I love how the look of Bruce stays grumpy throughout the whole book, even as his character softens in the story.

I also like how the goslings don’t seem to care about their “mommy’s”  bad disposition. The story isn’t really about a grumpy bear but more so about family. Being an adopted kid myself, I think it is a nice kind of adoption story too. It is a sweet story that says it doesn’t mater how you came together or what you look like, you are still a family.

Activities and Resources-

Bruce loves to cook so how about cooking something up with Bruce? The Kid Spot blog has some egg recipes that kids can cook. Click HERE to get them.

You can search the internet or better yet your library for books and news articles on animals adopting animals of a different species. HERE is a nice article at TheDodo.com that shows some pretty unusual parings – a tortoise and a hippo???

To find more Perfect Picture Books please visit Susanna Hill’s blog HERE!

Categories: Age 1-5

Tags: bibliophile, book review, bookworm, childrens books, mother bruce, perfect picture book, susanna leonard hill