Saturday, April 22, 2017

The Bear Who Wasn't There and the Fabulous Forest by Oren Lavie

Title: The Bear Who Wasn't There and the Fabulous Forest
Author: Oren Lavie
Illustrator: Wolf Erlbruch
Format: Picture Book
Length: 37 pages

The Story

The Bear Who Wasn't There isn't sure if he is himself. In his pocket he finds a list of clues about himself to help him figure that out. So he sets off through the forest to find out if he is himself.

My Thoughts

This is a very strange book. It's nonsensical nature reminded me a bit of Alice in Wonderland, but in this case the confusing nonsense (or, one might argue, philosophy) is basically the whole story. So if you're like me and don't easily understand abstract philosophical concepts, you might be confused the whole time you're reading this book. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I don't really get it. And I don't know what age group to recommend it to. I feel like this is an adult book in picture book format. Maybe if you know a really philosophical child?