Bright, colorful, and sweet illustrations, but I don't love the message about not being afraid of and befriending bears you meet in the wild. ( )

This is an adventure fiction book is about two very different explorers who meet each other. I loved the format of the book and how the illustrations showed the story vividly and the words were simply captions to the carefully detailed pictures. I also enjoyed that some of the strong vocabulary words in the story were highlighted or had a border surrounding it. The book had two sides, one side showed the little boy exploring and the other side showed the bear exploring, but in the same forest, doing different versions of the same thing. The language was descriptive yet minimal which I enjoyed. Both explorers enjoyed searching, climbing up trees and rolling down hills. They were both very happy with how things were going until they were running and ran into each other. The little boy says, “I was scared at first. I mean I was really scared, but then…I saw we were both explorers.” And after that, they explored, searched and conquered things together. I enjoyed the overall message of the story because it shows that even if two people are very different on the outside, they could have a lot in common and become best friends. Never judge a book by it’s cover! ( )

A boy and a bear are both exploring the different aspects of the woods when they come across each other and begin to explore together
6 books

A boy and a bear, each an eager explorer of the world around him, run into each other in the forest, and after their initial feelings of fear, join forces to discover the joys of the wild. With so many amazing things to touch, see, hear and taste, the boy/bear duo spend one of the best days ever together...

As with some of his other picture-books - To the Sea, If I Had a Gryphon - Cale Atkinson's digital artwork in Explorers of the Wild is colorful and engaging, with a cute animated style that many young children will find appealing. The story is a sweet fantasy, offering a reassuring take on childhood exploration - whilst the boy has been warned by his parents about the dangers he might face in the wild, so has his ursine counterpart. I don't know that this one made a particularly strong impression on me, but for those who enjoy Atkinson's art, this will make a fun title to add to their library. ( )

First thing I found interesting is the fact that the digital illustration found in this book is in my opinion not far off from the animation you see in Pixar movies full of color, texture, and background of nature. Second thing that interesting me is what the 2 characters discover in nature I feel that if a student were to be interested in nature this would be the story to show them. Overall, with the huge amount of information about nature found in this story as well as the illustrations being on par with that of Pixar movie future readers would be engrossed into this book.