The koala family is having a great time playing at the beach, but then all the other bears show up. First come the pandas, wearing traditional outfits from their country of origin. Then come the polar bears, and the black bears, and on and on. While the koala children eagerly accept the new bears and appreciate their differences, the koala parents are grumbly, judging each new family for not being like them. But when the parents have a huge realization, they begin to grudgingly accept the other bears -- or, at least, to allow their children to play with the other bears' children.
I absolutely loved the illustrations, and the descriptions of each type of bear inside the covers were very useful and informative. Because of this, I very much wanted to love the text as well but, unfortunately, the story just did not come together as well as it could have, and I feel like the point can very easily be lost without some adult intervention. It also seems as if the families who are most likely to need the book would be the least likely to buy it, since the message is aimed more toward adults with biases than toward their children. In addition, I was concerned about lumping koalas in with all the bears; although the tiny description inside the back cover states that koalas are not actually bears, this is easily overlooked, and the rest of the text seems to state otherwise, perpetuating this mistaken belief. Whether a book is fiction or nonfiction, it's still good to get the facts right, especially when writing for children.
Pre-K, EL (K-3) -- OPTIONAL. Reviewer: Caryn
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