Bear stays up for Christmas /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"The day before Christmas,
snuggled on his floor,
Bear sleeps soundly
with a great big snore...."
Bear's friends are determined to keep Bear awake for Christmas! So they wake Bear up and have him help them find a Christmas tree, bake cakes, hang up stockings, and sing Christmas songs. Bear stays up -- by discovering that giving is one of the best Christmas presents!
How a SURPRISE visit from someone very special gives Bear and his friends a Christmas to remember makes an enchanting holiday story for young readers. With Karma Wilson's memorable text and Jane Chapman's glowing illustrations, Bear Stays Up for Christmas is a book to cherish throughout the year.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Bear's thoughtful buddies rouse him from his deep hibernation nap just in time for Christmas Eve. With creative planning, the animals get their ursine friend into the holiday spirit-and the Yuletide preparations. And by the time Santa makes his appearance, guess who's tuckered out? (Not a certain Bear.) This duo's latest Bear book sustains the sweetness and humor of its predecessors (Bear Snores On; Bear Wants More) via rhyming, read-aloud-ready text and soft acrylic scenes of the cuddly creatures and wintry landscapes. Ages 3-7. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 2-It's the day before Christmas, and Bear's friends have gathered in his lair to wake him up to celebrate the holiday. They get a tree, pop corn and bake fruitcake, and hang stockings and hum songs. The others doze off, but Bear keeps busy wrapping presents, baking cookies, and decorating, unaware that a certain plump, red-suited gentleman is watching from outside the cave. The rhyming text sings, shouts, whispers, and crows, and the appealing acrylic illustrations are dear. This is an exuberant tale of friendship and perseverance, and holiday storytimes will be the brighter for it.-M. A. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Horn Book Review

Bear struggles to stay awake on Christmas Eve as he and his friends hunt for a tree, decorate it, and hang stockings. When the others nod off, Bear gets busy making and wrapping presents for everyone. The appealing illustrations, the smooth rhyme, and the catchy refrain of ""the bear stays up"" make this a satisfying addition to Wilson's other Bear books. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

In this third story about Bear and his friends, Bear struggles to stay awake during the group's holiday preparations. On Christmas Eve, all the other animals fall asleep, but Bear stays up all night making presents for the others. He's so busy with his work that he misses the appearance of Santa, who pauses at the cave door to fill all their stockings. On Christmas morning, the smaller animals enjoy their own gifts and then surprise Bear with a comfy quilt for his long-awaited winter slumber. The rollicking rhyming text is punctuated with the regular refrain of "but the bear stays up," which will surely be chanted gleefully by children listening to this story. The illustrations do a fine job with animal expressions and with difficult situations such as a mole popping corn and a Raven stirring up some fruitcake. The oversized format includes many double-page spreads with the bumbling, big-hearted bear in action and then finally settling down for a long winter's nap, after which Bear had better be back. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Karma Wilson was an only child who grew up in Idaho and developed a love of reading at an early age. She was reading a novel a day by the age of eleven. Karma never considered a writing career until she and her husband used a tax refund to buy a computer. Determined to make the machine pay for itself, Karma learned to type and decided to try her hand at writing. After countless rejections, Bear Snores On was released in 2002 and made it on both The New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists for children's books. Since then, she has had more than 30 other books accepted for publication. Her title Bear Says Thanks made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012.

(Bowker Author Biography)