Book Reviews: The few short sentences with easy vocabulary on each page make this ideal for young children and new readers. Holland’s photos include some great shots of the babysitter tree, the family group, and the brothers wrestling. Several, though, are more difficult to make out; the bears’ black fur makes them blend into one another and into background tree bark. Backmatter explains the difference between torpor and hibernation and includes two activities: one identifying what black bears eat from among 11 photos and the other matching descriptions of evidence of black bears to photos. - Kirkus Reviews. F&P Level: N Holland captures precious moments of this black bear family’s springtime adventures. Just like human children, the yearlings play, explore their surroundings, and then snuggle up with mom for milk. They even stay with a special “babysitter” while mom is away. Someday soon, the yearlings will be grown and go off on their own, but for now they can catch a nap under their mama bear’s watchful eye. This nonfiction picture book with a cuddle factor includes a 4-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 30-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. is vetted by experts and designed to encourage parental engagement. Its extensive back matter helps teachers with time-saving lesson ideas, provides extensions for science, math, and social studies units, and uses inquiry-based learning to help build critical thinking skills in young readers. The Spanish translation supports ELL and dual-language programs. The interactive ebook reads aloud in both English and Spanish with word highlighting and audio speed control to promote oral language skills, fluency, pronunciation, text engagement, and reading comprehension.