An enjoyable book of great quality on these beautiful mammals. The photographs of Ian McAllister are practically image poetry, some of them capture such intimate moments of the bears that you almost dive into the forest with them. Nicholas Read's narrative is fluid, interesting, relevant and even funny. It is a book that you will not be disappointed to enjoy as a family, for educators and homeschooling.

A Bear’s Life by Nicholas Read is the second book in the My Great Bear Rainforest series. Full of beautiful photographs, and fun facts about the bears and other wildlife of the rainforest, this book will teach young readers all about the daily life and behaviour of the bears. The lessons are from bear perspective, so you get an idea of how cubs learn from mom. In addition to black bears and grizzlies, readers also learn about the very special Spirit Bear, which is a genetic aberration among black bears, and are sacred animals.

My little ones (and the older ones) really enjoyed learning about the rainforest, and the bears. This is a perfect book for any young reader that enjoys nature and animals.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Orca Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A Bear’s Life had my children and me captivated from the very first pages. The book is an adventure from start to finish, containing photographs from the Great Bear Rainforest including black bears, grizzlies, spirit bears, wolves, and other wildlife.

This is a simple read for elementary students and easy enough for three to four year olds to understand when reading aloud. Along with each photograph, facts are shared and readers will learn what the bears eat, how they socialize, what other animals live there, how they hibernate, and much more beginning with spring and following through to winter again. Our most favorite parts in the book included facts about spirit bears (black bears with cream-colored fur) and how special they are with roughly a 1 to 10 ratio compared with black bears.

I appreciated that even the location of the rainforest was shared in the beginning of the book so young ones can get an idea where it is on the map. I think the map would’ve been better located on an actual page versus the front inside cover because it’s easy to miss.

Overall, we loved A Bear’s Life and can’t wait to read other books in the My Great Bear Rainforest series.

5*****

A Bear's Life by Ian McAllister, and Nicholas Read is a children's nonfiction book and the second book in the My Great Bear Rainforest series. Black bears, grizzly bears, and spirit bears all make their home in the Great Bear Rainforest. A Bear's Life uses Ian McAllister's stunning photographs to follow these beautiful animals through a year in the British Columbia wilderness—catching fish, eating berries, climbing trees and taking long naps.

A Bear's Life is full of full color photographs of bears, and other animals, that are simply stunning. The information included is not very detailed, short and accessible. It could help young readers better understand how bears live, and interact with the world around them. I did not find that the book was very organized, topics seemed to jump around a bit and some of the phrasing was a bit stilted. However, the images were absolutely beautiful and make the book well worth a glance, even if I was a little disappointed in the text.

Who doesn’t love bears? This is a great introduction to bears and the Great Bear Rainforest for kids. It is appropriate for young readers.

The book is copiously illustrated with enchanting photos of bears being bears. The stunning landscape photos will make you long to visit this place. The photographers did a fantastic job with the images for this book and they really complement the text.

Young readers will learn about black bears, grizzly bears, spirit bears, ravens, salmon and more. There are natural history lessons in the text, all shown from the perspective of bears. They see how a cub learns life lessons from its mother and grows up in this environment. Readers also learn about the spirit bear, which is a white-coated black bear that lives only in this part of the world and nowhere else.

The book comes full cycle, detailing a year in the life of a bear. It’s a good way to introduce bears to young readers and let them pore over the photos. The words are easily read by most readers, although parents should help them with any words they stumble over.

I recommend this book to anyone who has a youngster just learning to read, or a more experienced reader who loves bears and nature. It’s a good book to let them read on their own. As a bear fan myself, I loved it!

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Utilizing Ian McCallister’s breathtaking photographs of bears in the wilds of British Colombia, Nicholas Read introduces young readers to the lives of the average bear. From cubhood to adulthood, the bears of the Great Bear Rainforest learn to hunt, eat berries, play, and take really long naps. Read’s text keeps things informative without being dull or boring, acting as a perfect complement to McCallister’s photography without one dwarfing the other. Definitely recommend for K-3 aged kids who are fond of nature.

No matter how old we are, we never stop learning something new.
When I saw the photograph of a white bear on the book's cover, I became curious and wanted to find out more about it. I have never seen a white bear before in my life. I also did not know about the Great Bear Forest, located in British Columbia. The beautiful photographs of the bears that live there and the descriptions that go with them, are ideal to capture the curiosity of young children. Even as adults, we can learn something new from this book. I believe that A Bear's Life by Ian McAllister, and Nicholas Read should be in every children's library.

Beautiful photographs. A nice introduction to the the types of bears and their activities in the Great Bear Rainforest

A Bear's Life is every young nature lovers delight and a book of outstanding quality.

For young children their first and foremost impact are still pictures or photos, these will decide if they find the book interesting and enticing and if they will later memorize what they've just read.
The photos in this book are stunning, cheerful, cute and simply breathtakingly beautiful. They mostly depict bears in the wild, mother and cub, etc.
Together with interesting information, suitable and easily digestable for the age group, this is a wonderful book and a must have for every school library.

I really fell in love with the book and am happy to give it 5 bear paws.

An excellent book that talked about the elusive spirit bear that is amazingly fascinating-- especially the story of the raven.

One of those books where the title, as simple as it is, tells you all you need to know.
It starts with a beautiful photo of a forested island. The text is straightforward and easy to understand. “Cubs want to play, just like you.” Good to see the author highlighting the similarities so that kids will be more disposed to helping nature. Another such occurrence was the “eating barnacles like popcorn” bit; humorous to read, but I wouldn’t want to see it.
White ursines are called spirit bears, which is of course appropriate because they do look a little spooky. Of course there has to be a story where Raven—the Trickster—has a hand in turning some bears white.
The photos are exquisite, though that’s to be expected in such a place as uninhabited northern British Columbia. I had to smile when I saw some of the close-ups were taken from above, so either the photographer was in a plane/chopper or using a drone. There’s also a perfect action shot of a bear catching a fish.
Simple storytelling, with the photos the main draw.

An introduction to the Great Bear Rainforest, the types of bears who live there, and their typical activities throughout the year.

This was so very well done. The text flows and is informative, but the photos are what really make this book excellent. They aren’t just photos of bears, they catch the bears in action and make them come alive. A beautiful, informative, and engaging book. Highly recommended for curious lower and middle grade students, and any class studying temperate rainforests or bears. I’ll definitely be recommending that our elementary library add this title.

'A Bear's Life' first and foremost has the most stunning photographs, of bears in their natural habitat and things we wouldn't ordinarily get to see. The text is rather small - I assume not to detract from the beauty of the images - which can be a little trickier to read, but the layout is on the whole, great. This is only a short book but there are plenty of interesting facts - I certainly learnt quite a lot about bears! Apparently this is the second book in the Great Rainforest series, so I'll be looking out for the first book just on the photographs alone.

A Bear's Life by Ian McAllister is a wonderful nature book with gorgeous photographs taken by the author. There are pictures of bears, other animals, and the beautiful landscape of the British Columbian Rain Forest. The text in the book describes the life of the bears, what they eat, how they forage, raise their young and hibernate. The information is short and not too detailed for young readers. I liked reading about the Spirit Bear as that is not something I really knew about before. This is a good book to give basic information and to peak the interest of the reader to investigate further. It is also a good non-fiction book for young readers. A great book for kids of all ages. Great learning book and a great visual delight. I would recommend this book for public, school and classroom libraries.

A Bear's Life by Ian McAllister and Nicholas Read is an excellent nature book that has the most fabulous images! There are pictures of bears, other animals, of the gorgeous natural landscape, of the "spirit bears", of bears fishing, and more. The pictures are crisp, clear, and stunning! They make the reader feel warm, caring, and understanding to the bear and their life, and surroundings. The information that accompanies the pictures gives the reader information about the life of the bears, what it would be like to be a bear, what they would get, see, do, hunt, etc. A great book for kids of all ages. Great learning book and a great visual delight! I want to thank NetGalley and the book publishers for allowing me to read this book.

The photography is beautiful. I liked how the text did not talk down to children but made the concepts clear and easy to understand. Different types of bear are discussed as well as mentioning other animals in the rainforest. I especially liked the discussion about Spirit Bears.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Bears, bears everywhere! I just had to try out this book when I spotted it at Netgalley. I love bears, and the cover looked adorable.

Sadly, the book was pretty chaotic, we jump from topic to topic, of course all about bears (and one raven), but at times I thought I missed pages because we suddenly went from cubs to beaches and shells. I know this is a short book, but it would really have benefited from a bit more order. Maybe even some pages in-between to announce what the next topic is (hey, it is a good excuse to add more of those cute bear photographs).

The sentences are also a bit hopscotch. Just like how the topics go from one to another, that is also what it feels like with the sentences. I get they want to have kids understand it easily, but I am not sure if kids will benefit from this in this particular book.

Still I will rate this book 3 stars. Why? The pictures are just the best (and adorable), the format (as in pictures + text) is done well, plus you can actually read the text when it is pasted on the photographs.

A wonderful photographic journey through bear country, with lots of interesting facts. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ebook for review.

I adore this book! Written in a conversational tone, this book would be perfect for parents to read to their younger children and for older children to read to themselves. With enough information to capture your interest but without the information overload that leaves you bored, A Bear's Life would be a fantastic resource to assist children writing school reports and will be sure to teach their parents new information as well.

Following a year in the life of British Columbia's black bears, grizzly bears and spirit bears, the words are complemented by spectacular photography. You almost feel as though you could reach out and touch the bears in some of the images. The changes in layout and the scatterings of bear paw prints throughout the book work together, unlike some children's nonfiction books where the layout on each page remains the same and becomes stale by the end. There's a great balance between words and images, and there aren't any pages that look cluttered.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley (thank you very much to NetGalley and Orca Book Publishers) in exchange for an honest review. I'd recommend this book to children and parents alike, and imagine it being used in classrooms, as well as public and school libraries. I'll be looking out for more books in this series.

This book has the most beautiful photographs of bears that capture their fun nature. It would definitely be a book I would buy for little ones.