Better Not Get Wet, Jesse Bear: 10/07/07

Better Not Get Wet, Jesse Bear is another of the recent books I donated to Sean's school. While I've read a number of positive reviews on this book, it personally left me scratching my head.

Jesse Bear must be about two years old. He's a young, rambunctious bear who is apparently into everything. Although his parents have a day of swimming planned for him, they don't want him to get wet before it is time. Yet they give him ample opportunity to disobey with a tempting aquarium, garden hose and so forth. I find this sort of behavior among real life adults to their children infuriating so I'm clueless as to why I'd find it fodder for a cute story.

Fortunately Jesse Bear seems pretty thick skinned to all of his parent's scolding but later in life he's either going to be neurotic from years of unexplained scolding or he's going to be a spoiled brat who won't have any sort of self discipline. Neither option seems like a good future for Jesse Bear.

From the positive reviews, younger children (the books is aimed at the preschool crowd) like the simplistic rhymes and colorful illustrations. They also like the repetition of the phrase: "Better not get wet, Jesse Bear." I didn't have an opportunity to read it to either of my two children so I can't tell you if they would agree with these reviews.

Comments (0)