No Bears by Meg Mckinlay

'No Bears'

written by Meg Mckinlay

& Illustrated by Leila Rudge

No Bears written by Meg Mckinlay is a book about a child who wants to tell the reader about a story with no bears. Some narratives are structured differently from the traditional way of using plot, character and setting and this book is no exception. The author has made the narrative from the perspective of second person where the story is told to the reader. Within this story the child protagonist interrupts the story being read and addresses the reader directly by commenting on the characters and the events “On no it’s getting scary” (Mckinlay, 2012). This way the book is conveying multiple perspectives to the reader.

Multiple viewpoints are also seen as the illustrations within this picture book show a different story to the one being read. The illustrations are showing things which have not been written. The book is about ‘no bears’ so the bears are hidden behind the illustrations and popping up behind the pictures “I had lots of fun illustrating No Bears and have always loved the idea of images revealing an alternative story to the text” (Rudge, 2011).

The illustrations are also showing another perspective to the book as some of the illustrations are making direct links with popular fairtales. Within the illustrations red riding hood, Repunzel, three little pigs, Hansel and Gretel and other fairy tales can be seen.

Overall this book is a comical children’s book for lower primary students. Even though ‘no bears’ are in this book, one bear manages to find his way onto each page and eventually have one of the starring roles.