A Visitor for Bear (review)

"No visitors allowed," says the sign on Bear's door, though it's apparently a superfluous warning, since he never has visitors anyway—not until the mouse, "small and gray and bright-eyed," turns up at his house. No matter how Bear tries to exclude the mouse, the wee rodent gets in, leading to Bear's thundering denunciations and the mouse's apologetic excuses. When the persistent mouse finally convinces Bear to share tea, however, the bruin discovers that company is a pleasant thing to have. The well-built story supports its gentle whimsy effectively, and the comic grandiosity of Bear's fulminations ("This is impossible! Intolerable! Insufferable!") provides a humorous counterpart to the mouse's polite yet stealthy persistence. Denton, deftly imbuing her watercolor illustrations with expression and character as well as tidy charm, makes her scenes softly inviting with pastel tones and warm brown edging lines as well as old-fashioned interior detail that makes Bear's house seem a place anyone might wish to infiltrate. The two adversaries are notable visual personalities, Bear gifted with a balletic lightness of foot and tendency toward dramatic poses, the mouse with a studied nonchalance in his sideways glances. With its vitality, friendliness, and individuality, this is a standout in the "unlikely friends" genre.