The Three Snow Bears

Title: The Three Snow Bears
Author: Jan Brett
Publisher: G.P Putnam’s Sons
Genre: Picture Book/ multicultural/ traditional literature
Age Range: k-3

Summary: This book is a revised version of the three bears with goldilocks. The ‘goldilocks’ in this story is a little Inuit girl named Aloo-ki. And the three bears are snow bears that live in igloos. She first drinks out of each bears bowl deciding that the littlest bowl was not to hot or to cold. Then she finds three pairs of boots, with the littlest ones fitting just right. She then goes to the room with a long sleeping bench piled with three different mounds of fur blankets, with the littlest one that was warm and cozy and just right. The snow bears come back and find their bowls empty, their boots had been warn, and their beds slept in, in fact baby bear finds that little Aloo-ki is still in his bed. Aloo-ki jumps out of bed through the papa bears legs and back on her dog sled were everyone waved goodbye.

Response: AMAZING images! I wanted to touch the bears and rub his white very fuzzy looking fur, and touch these beautiful carved bowls, and the soft jackets! Oh the imagery in this book is nothing like I have ever seen. Everything honest to goodness looks so real like you could touch it. The little girl is precious. I love how it shows so many things from the Inuit culture. The utensils, beds bowls, clothes, boots, houses were totally different than anything you would find around here. I loved all the detail to the home. Another thing I found very neat is that each page has almost like a border, telling a whole nether story. If you haven’t seen this book I would highly recommend that you do! I have seen some of her other books like the mitten, but this is my favorite!

Teaching ideas: I would obviously use this book to discuss the Inuit people. In fact I think you do this in the 5th grade. I remember each student having to make igloos out of sugar cubes. One thing that I might do in the classroom is talk about the detail in all their possessions such as clothes, utensils, beds, tools, any object. And have each student or pair of students’ research how they made these objects and what efforts went into them and to see if they could make some kind of object (tool, clothes, utensil) that the Inuit’s might use. This book could also be used to discuss the different kinds of wildlife in Canada or any artic area.