Billy and Griz share everything and this is a lovely story of friendship - with a totally unexpected twist at the end. || Narrated in the first person, this handsomely produced landscape picture book is about the relationship between the narrator Billy, a small boy, and his best friend Griz, the Grizzly Bear. Griz' s bulk is such that the size differential between him and Billy is striking as Billy curls up on his flank to sleep or sits on his back for a ride. At the finish it is revealed that Griz is actually Billy' s toy bear, transformed in his imagination into this powerful yet benign creature.The power of the story lies in part in the young narrator' s implicit mastery of what is in reality a powerfully ferocious wild animal. While Griz is so large that on occasion only a portion of his anatomy fits on the page, Suzanne McGinness' s confidently scribbly ink line and watercolour on pages with (unusually) a gloss finish convey the texture of his fur and the hidden power of the body it clads. Billy appears puny beside him. The minimal text in large typeface makes this an ideal book for beginner readers as well as for reading aloud. Pencil ' graffiti' on the pages written by Billy provides an additional commentary. An accomplished debut from this new artist. || In the touching and imaginative 'My Bear Griz' Billy and his best friend Griz go exploring, play hide and seek, eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches and share treasured secrets. Is Griz a grizzly bear or a teddy bear? Suzanna McGuiness's debut picture book is a work of art. || An impressive debut. || Perfect for the emergent reader - easy to memorise with minimal, large, clear and bold text - this bookk is an endearing tale of love and friendship, simply written, beautifully told and superbly illustrated... This is the kind of book children will treasure forever and love to revisit. || This deceptively simple text is a tale of friendship, and McGinness shows an intuative grasp of the child's world. Griz and Billy are empathetic characters in an imagined world in which the child can readily engage. They share both jokes and fears. The final spread reveals an irresistible twist and leaves much to laugh and think about.
