Help! I'm Being Eaten by a Bear! is an absurd and playful picture book featuring an opinionated narrator. The duo behind Don't Trust Fish, author Neil Sharpson and National Book Award and Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Dan Santat, team up for another clever, joke-filled outing.
When the glib protagonist receives a pair of "FANCY TRAVELING PANTS," he wants to immediately wear the traffic-cone orange, water-resistant, multipocketed trousers. He gets on a plane and flies from Ireland to Alaska, where "there are five things: 1. Mountains 2. Trees 3. Bears 4. Lovely people. 5. More bears." Upon landing, a "nice lady" welcomes him with the pamphlet "WHAT TO DO IF YOU MEET A BEAR" but since he is "not planning on meeting a bear," he doesn't read it. Before the tired narrator has even left the airport, he bumps into something: "That thing [is] a bear."
The man consults the pamphlet, which has lots of "interesting, but not very useful" information about bears. He soon realizes the pamphlet is no help and tosses it away, instead asking the bear what it wants. The bear takes out a notepad and draws a very good likeness of itself eating the man. The man runs. So, too, does the bear. After a wild chase, the bear eats the narrator whole. "Fortunately, at that moment," winter arrives and the bear falls asleep. The man attempts to wriggle out of the bear's mouth, but his FANCY TRAVELING PANTS are caught in the bear's teeth, and the Alaskan fire brigade must intervene. Alas, the pants are ruined. The man, now trapped in the hospital because he has no pants, spends his time writing a new pamphlet called "WHAT TO ACTUALLY DO IF YOU MEET A BEAR."
Sharpson's superb comic timing, expert use of first-person narration, and extremely dry wit make for an uproariously entertaining picture book. His text is gleefully silly and succeeds by not overnarrating. Instead, Santat's distinctively droll illustrations, done in pencil, watercolor, and Photoshop, supply plenty of essential details (such as the bear's "WHAT TO DO IF YOU MEET A HUMAN" pamphlet and his notepad drawing), because, per Sharpson's pamphlet-making narrator, "the artist does most of the real work." Readers will likely eat up this high-energy story that the narrator touts as "a true story, except," of course, "for the parts [he] made up." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author
Shelf Talker: This energetic picture book, with superb comic timing and droll illustrations, is touted as a true story--except, of course, for the parts the narrator has made up.