Bear cut a tree from the forest and made a little box.He stained it with berry juice and lined it with petals.Then he gently laid his friend inside. This is a touching picture book about loneliness, grief and loss, ending with a positive new beginning. It shows a way through paralysing grief and simultaneously tells the story of a budding new friendship.

 

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 2011 by Gecko Press .

Komako Sakai worked in textile design before beginning to illustrate children's books. She is the winner of the Japanese Picture Book Prize. Kazumi Yumoto is the author of The Spring Tone and The Friends, which won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction. She lives in Tokyo, Japan.