Bear Loves Music - Pang Shuo - ★★.½

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AUTHOR: Pang Shuo
GENRE: Children's Picture Book
PUBLICATION DATE: November 9, 2021
RATING: 2.5 stars.


This is quite a basic story about Bear who loves to play the flute. She wanders around her neighbourhood playing her melodies, but some neighbours don’t appreciate the disturbance. Just as she gets disheartened, some other animals tell her how much they appreciate her music. And thus, as Bear starts playing her flute again, she spreads happiness to all around her, including the animals who were earlier upset.

There is no outright message or moral in this story. It is just a story that goes at its flow and culminates with a happy ending. I understand how Bear must have felt confident after some animals support her music. But that’s hardly a stand-out point. As regards those animals who complain about Bear’s flute, I quite understand their reasons: one couldn’t hear her own music, one was fishing and the flute drove away the fish, and the third was taking a nap. All quite justifiable reasons to ask Bear to turn it down a notch. Why they had a sudden change of heart when Bear and her music stays the same isn’t quite explained. Essentially, the story could have been much more but ends up as too simplistic.

The illustrations are cute enough and all the animals appear quite charming. But there is one glaring mistake – the instrument that Bear plays in the illustrations isn’t a flute at all! The biggest clue to this lies in how she holds the instrument. A flute is always played while being held transverse to the body from the mouth to the shoulder. A recorder is played while being held straight with both hands.

Overall, this was just a decent book and I didn’t find it memorable. Maybe it would be good for libraries but there are better books out there for parents to invest in. As a music lover myself, I expected it to create a bigger impact on me, but sadly, it wasn't so.

My thanks to Clavis Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of “Bear Loves Music”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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