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    Mother Bruce

    4.7 7

    by Ryan T. Higgins, Ryan T. Higgins (Illustrator)


    Hardcover

    $17.99
    $17.99

    Customer Reviews

    • ISBN-13: 9781484730881
    • Publisher: Disney Press
    • Publication date: 11/24/2015
    • Series: Mother Bruce Series
    • Pages: 48
    • Sales rank: 6,251
    • Product dimensions: 9.10(w) x 12.20(h) x 0.50(d)
    • Lexile: AD570L (what's this?)
    • Age Range: 3 - 5 Years

    Ryan T. Higgins is an author/illustrator residing in Southern Maine. He lives with his three dogs, three cats, two geckos, one tortoise, one son, one daughter, and one wife. He has wanted to be a cartoonist since as far back as he can remember. (Actually, that's not entirely true-he wanted to be a tiger until he was three, but, sadly, that didn't really pan out.) Ryan's first picturebook, Wilfred, was named a 2013 Wanda G g Read Aloud Honor Book. Visit Ryan online at ryanthiggins.com.

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    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?

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    The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo
    Higgins turns classic picture-book scenarios upside down, then wrings them for contemporary laughs…
    Publishers Weekly
    09/07/2015
    Bruce is a grumpy bear. He’s also a thieving and unscrupulous bear, and he likes to take eggs from nests (“He cooked them into fancy recipes he found on the internet”). But four eggs he grabs from a goose don’t cook. They hatch. The four goslings that emerge follow Bruce everywhere, and no matter how he threatens—even when he bares his fangs and roars—the adorable big-footed goslings look merely puzzled. Little by little, the geese break Bruce down (“Bruce was stuck with them. He tried to make the best of it”) and wear away at his dignity; in one scene he glares darkly beside a wading pool in water wings and flippers. Having passed through goose infancy and goose adolescence (complete with headphones) into adulthood, the geese refuse to migrate; Bruce has to improvise. Higgins (Wilfred) dwells satisfyingly on Bruce’s forbidding scowls and tubby middle, and even portrays properly the change from gosling fuzz to adult Canada goose plumage. It’s a droll look at conflict won by the underdog and—in its way—a book about unconventional families. Ages 3–5. Agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary Management. (Nov.)
    From the Publisher
    E. B. White Read-Aloud Award
    Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor
    New York Times Best Seller
    Kids Indie Next List, Top 10

    * "Ryan T. Higgins's illustrations are extraordinary. . . . [A] hilarious, artful picture book with a nod to foodies great and small."—Shelf Awareness, starred review

    * "[W]ry text and marvelously detailed pictures juxtapose uproariously. . .Visually beautiful, clever, edgy, and very funny."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

    "[H]ats off to Ryan T. Higgins."—Wall Street Journal

    "Higgins turns classic picture-book scenarios upside down, then wrings them for contemporary laughs."—New York Times

    Kirkus Reviews
    ★ 2015-08-26
    A crotchety bear unwillingly raises four goslings. Bruce is a stocky, black-and-dark-indigo bear with a scowling unibrow. He dislikes sunny days, rainy days, and cute little animals. He likes one thing: eggs, cooked into gourmet recipes that he finds on the Internet. He "collects" eggs from Mrs. Sparrow or Mrs. Goose—asking, hilariously, whether they're "free-range organic"—but the pictures reveal the truth: he's clearly stealing them. As Bruce brings home some goose eggs that unexpectedly hatch and imprint on him—"Bruce became the victim of mistaken identity"—wry text and marvelously detailed pictures juxtapose uproariously. Setting out to "get the ingredients" means wheeling a shopping cart into a river; "for some reason" he loses his appetite placing a pat of butter atop a live gosling's head on his plate. Grumblingly, Bruce rears them from "annoying baby geese" through "stubborn teenage geese" (wearing headphones, naturally) into "boring adult geese." Still they won't leave him. Rather than migrating (by wing or by the giant slingshot Bruce builds for the purpose), they don winter hats and coats. Befitting Bruce's personality, there's no sappy change of heart, but this family is forever. Higgins' softly fascinating textures, deft lines, savvy use of scale, and luminous landscapes (which evoke traditional romantic landscape painting, atmospheric in air and light) make for gorgeous art. Visually beautiful, clever, edgy, and very funny. (Picture book. 3-6)

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