If Beaver Had a Fever
While creating crayon pictures of animals, a young bear has a playful session of what-if with his mother. Little Bear asks Mama Bear, “If you were a doctor in charge of the zoo . . . ,” and then, using rhyme, creates a series of situations in which different animals have different ailments. “What if Chimp had a limp?” “What if Deer couldn’t hear?” “What if Meerkat got too fat?” Mama Bear has a rhyming solution for each: “If Meerkat came by / weighing too many pounds, / I’d call over Cheetah / to chase him around.” Little Bear’s childlike drawings depict each of Mama’s solutions on the backdrop behind them, as if the images were being projected. Eventually Little Bear asks what if he were the sick one. Mama Bear’s remedy for this includes entertainment, balloons, tickling, cookies, soup, and comfort. Fun, cheerful, colorful, and comforting—this is a pleasant remedy for the blues or any somber mood. Read-alikes include Rhonda Gowler Greene’s Barnyard Song (1997) and Teresa Bateman’s Farm Flu (2001). Preschool-Grade 1. --Randall Enos