One day Bear decides he will sing with the birds -
he has heard every tune and he knows all the words.
But as hard as he tries to fit in with their song,
when he opens his mouth it comes out sort of wrong.
Each creature is different, that's just how it goes,
but will Bear ever realise what's under his nose?
Bear wakes every morning to beautiful birdsong, and longs to join in. He stretches his legs, puts on his cap and braces and thinks he must try to join in with the beautiful bird song all around him in the forest. But he is downhearted to discover his song is more of `a holler, a howl and rumbling growl; With a sort of snore, all combined in a "ROAR!"'. His wise friend, Owl, tries to encourage him by pointing out that Bear is not a bird, but Bear gets the wrong end of the stick and attempts to fly, as if that might improve the quality of his song by making him more bird-like. In the end, Bear concentrates on what he does best. All of the forest animals gather to watch him perform his new song, and cheer in amazement at his newfound talent. Satisfied with finding what makes him unique, Bear smiles to himself and promptly falls back to sleep.

 

There are 32 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2019 by Thames & Hudson Ltd .

Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow are an author and illustrator pairing based in London. Their previous books for Tate include A Possum's Tail and London Calls.