Santa Bruce, warms the heart of all who read it, even grumpy bears

Everyone loves a curmudgeon; especially the curmudgeon lite, a la Hugh Grant, to me they’re impossible to resist. Sure they appear grumpy, but you know that deep down they love not bad, they simply want to evoke a crusty exterior, most likely to put off unwarranted salespeople. Somewhere between Hugh Grant and Archie Bunker (but much closer to Hugh Grant) is Bruce, the bear who inhabits the books by New York Times Best-Selling Author Ryan T. Higgins.  Bruce is back in Santa Bruce, a seasonal Christmas tale about a grumpy bear, three irrepressible mice and the rest of the animals in the forest who have a big surprise coming their way.

In previous Bruce books our solitary bear accepted the sometimes overbearing company of a goose and three bears. Since then he’s grown to accept them as family. What’s a family to do around Christmas time when Mother Nature tells one of them to sleep all winter while the other one flies south? The mice are in full blown Christmas mode, the geese are on the Christmas train too, but Bruce is standing tall in his outwardly gruff appearance.

Then, one day when he’s outside shoveling snow a raccoon thinks that he is Santa Claus. Bruce stringently denies it, but the star struck raccoon scampers off into the forest to tell his friends that he’s just seen Santa. Before long there’s a line of critters outside Bruce’s house waiting to tell the grumpy bear in red and white what they like before Christmas night.

The mice don’t do Santa Bruce, as he’s now being called, any favors as they invite generations of animals into the house.  As Christmas Eve approaches may the mice may have just extend Bruce’s favors too far Will our favorite grumpy, blue bear be able to deliver through on what the otters, rabbits, deer, squirrels and foxes think that they have coming?

Santa Bruce is a hoot. This is fun reading that makes a great good-night book. Part of the charm of the book lays in its slightly oversized landscape format. This allows the big winter scenes from the forest a chance to breathe. When the pages are jammed with detail it gives Bruce and his friend’s opportunities to express their personality.

The text is perfect for a third grader to read on their own. However, the story is one that begs to be read to kids of any age. It’s perfect for ages three and up. Our six year old laughs out loud when we read the book to him as he knows the metaphorical Santa Clause is coming for Bruce.

How does a typical eight year old view the book? Here’s an unabridged account of what our eight year old said when I asked him if he liked the book.

You know….I like that it takes place in winter, because I like winter. It’s about a bear and I like bears. It’s about animals. NO, he wants to hibernate because he hates the holiday, but the mice want to do it every year now. But now they want Bruce to be Santa every year, but Bruce doesn’t want to do it. I think ages 6 through 9 YO would like it.