Books like Bears on Chairs
By Shirley Parenteau
For toddlers deep in the sharing struggle, this is a gentle rehearsal of the exact problem they're facing on the living room couch. Cozy, bouncy, and sweet, with a singsong rhythm made for repeat read-alouds.
A great brown bear sleeps through winter while mouse, hare, badger, raven, and mole sneak into his cave one by one, brewing tea and popping corn without waking him — until he finally stirs.
On a rainy afternoon, a snoozing granny, a dreaming child, a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, and a slumbering mouse pile onto one cozy bed — until a wakeful flea bites, and the whole sleepy stack comes tumbling down.
Give a hungry little mouse a cookie and he'll ask for milk, then a mirror, then scissors — one small request tumbling into the next until the whole day spins out of control.
A visitor-hating bear puts up a no-visitors sign and orders a mouse out of his house, but the mouse keeps turning up in the most unexpected places anyway.
Five monkey siblings are supposed to be asleep, but they keep sneaking in one more book (or three), until Mama finally takes their books away and discovers a bedtime habit of her own.
A man and his dog set out on a peaceful camping trip, but a marshmallow-loving bear sends them plunging down a mountain and racing down a river toward a waterfall.
Seven soldiers each add one part to a magnificent cannon in this cumulative folk song, until Drummer Hoff arrives to fire it off with a satisfying bang.
A curious cat named Cookie gets into a different scrape every day of the week, from Monday to Sunday, causing small chaos around the house at every turn.
Two kids stuck inside on a rainy day get an uninvited visitor — a tall cat in a striped hat who promises fun and games while their mother is away.
A mischievous family cat dodges bath time by scrambling Dad's chore list, so the family ends up mowing the floor, vacuuming the lawn, and mopping the baby instead of doing what they meant to.
A little old lady complains that her house is too small, so a wise old man tells her to bring in the hen, goat, pig, and cow one by one — with noisy, crowded results.
A cat gets a cupcake and asks for sprinkles to go with it, setting off a chain of requests and small messes that just keeps looping back on itself.
