A Best Friend for Bear

Praise

Horácek’s signature illustration style is on display in this sweet story. . . The book offers a lovely show of kindness as the bears actively display the hallmarks of good friendship: supporting one another, lightening a heavy load, and sharing excitement. A sweetly funny tale of burgeoning friendship.
—Kirkus Reviews

Horácek’s mixed-media illustrations in rich forest-y colors bring out the bears’ sweet, naive personalities and capture their varying emotions as the day unfolds. Young readers will of course catch on long before the protagonists do that the extended friend-search is unnecessary, but that superior knowledge (and the bears’ cluelessness) is part of the story’s appeal.
—The Horn Book

Horácek’s gorgeously scribbled multi-media drawings are textured and inky, creating an almost three-dimensional style. . . . The book is both funny and tender, and as the two buddies hold paws to lean over deep ravines and wander through golden butterfly-filled fields, kiddos will enjoy being in on the joke—realizing that the bears have already found what they’re looking for, far before the bears do.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books