Bear’s Big Day by Salina Yoon, soothing school jitters for small kids

Salina Yoon is an author whose distinctive style makes her work immediately memorable for its demographic. Yoon has a way of speaking to the pre-school to early elementary school audience like few who write for that field. If I didn’t know that she was a grown woman I’d swear that she attended our son’s pre-school class with him. Bear’s Big Day is another example of her channeling everyone’s inner 4 year old going back to school, or in this case, starting school.

For our family this book was spot-on appropriate. Our youngest started going to pre-school and after a year of watching his brother get on and off the bus he finally got to ride it with him. This particular school has a speech program that he had been going to since he was 2 and a half. Being the obviously youngest kid in a school has its advantages, but now it’s time to be a big kid and go to pre-k.

The art work in Bear’s Big Day is immediately noticeable as belonging to Salina Yoon. Big characters, simple-yet detailed illustrations and lots, lots of animals. Bear is going to pre-k for the first time and not sure what to expect. He can’t eat, nap or doesn’t play with the other kids and thinks that he might not be as big a kid as he thought he was.

It’s here when the teacher pulls him aside and tells him that it’s OK to ask for help. Bear misses Floppy, his stuffed, toy bunny at home and asks his teacher for help. The next day Bear is able to bring Floppy to school because his teacher helped him make a pouch for his backpack to fit in.  We also learn that one of his friends at school brought their stuffed animal too.

Audiences who are familiar with Yoon’s other work will recognize Bear, as well as, Floppy from her earlier books like Found and Stormy Night. Yoon’s artwork conveys subtle emotions and feelings that a typical kid goes through. It’s not overly expressive; much like a nervous 4 year old might be and Yoon tells the story in as minimal fashion as possible. This is great for the pre-k audience because their tolerance for anything more would certainly be a challenge.

The vocabulary is appropriate so that a 6 year old can read by themselves. Sometimes he’ll read it to his younger brother and other times we’ll read it to both of them. The length of Bear’s Big Day out is great for a good-night book. It’s short enough to read twice and has big pages, full of color that will keep kid’s attention.