Mother Goose, rather, Mother Bruce, is the laugh-out-loud funny story of a grouchy bear who reluctantly becomes the guardian of four goslings, when all he wanted to do was eat them.
"Bruce was a bear who lived all by himself. He was a grump." Bruce doesn't like sunny days, rain or even cute little animals. The one thing he does like is eggs and, after stealing them from various birds, he cooks them into "fancy recipes that he found on the internet," such as "hard-boiled goose eggs drizzled with honey-salmon sauce." The ingredients for this dish are fairly easy to procure. Heading out into the wilds with his shopping cart, Bruce catches a few salmon in the river, collects honey from a local beehive (supporting local business) and grabs Mrs. Goose by the neck to inquire if her eggs are "free-range organic."
Back at home in his grass-covered bear mound (complete with hinged wooden door), Bruce puts on his chef's hat and prepares to hard-boil the eggs on the wood stove. But when he goes out to fetch kindling, he returns to an "unwelcome surprise." The four eggs on the stove have hatched into goslings, and they are all crying "MAMA!" This won't do. He scoops up the little geese and heads back to Mrs. Goose to see about her return policy--but she's flown south early. No matter how many times Bruce tells the baby geese he is not their mother, the wee waddlers continue to trail him: "Goslings always/ follow their mother,/ even if SHE/ is a HE and/ HE is a bear."
Bruce gives in. He does his best to raise the annoying baby geese--even getting them a wading pool, painting with them, feeding them in high chairs and napping with them. Scowling, he watches them grow from stubborn teenage geese (with bad posture and headphones) into boring adult geese. As the weather turns cold, Bruce, still eager for their departure and a much-needed long winter nap, explains migration to them, flapping his arms like wings. They don't listen, they just don winter hats and coats and stare at him with big eyes. Bruce even builds a slingshot system and attempts to launch them south. As a last resort, he decides they all should migrate, by bus, to Miami for the winter and, sure enough, that's where they land, on the beach in Hawaiian shirts, sipping lemonade with cocktail umbrellas.
Ryan T. Higgins's illustrations are extraordinary. The dark purple bear with his perpetually furrowed brow contrasts delightfully with the irresistibly cute yellow goslings who ignore his surliness and crawl and tumble all over him. The inky line work for the fur and feathers, flora and fauna is wonderfully intricate, and many of the subtly textured, full-bleed landscapes are breathtaking, whether they show the soft early morning sunlight spilling into the woods where the trees cast shadows or a gorgeous Miami beach, water sparkling. In the end, a baby sea turtle hatches on the sand and inches up to one of the geese. "Mama?"
Mother Bruce never cracks a smile as he dutifully raises his new family, but young readers won't be able to hold back. --Karin Snelson, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness
Shelf Talker: Mother Bruce, not Mother Goose, is a bear who reluctantly raises four goslings in this hilarious, artful picture book with a nod to foodies great and small.