Spooner the Bear


Children - Animals
28 Pages
Reviewed on 09/12/2015
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Jake Willers is an international TV presenter, filmmaker and author. He has traveled to over 30 countries and filmed in some of the most inhospitable places on earth. Having grown up on a wildlife park that he managed for many years, Jake gained a wealth of experience and a passion for the natural world, which he now injects into his children's books and filmmaking. Jake has hosted 30 wildlife shows, which have enjoyed success in 147 countries and been translated into 25 languages, working with channels including National Geographic Channel International, Nat Geo Wild, Animal Planet, and Channel FIVE, UK. In 2007 Jake moved from Cambridge, England to the US and formed NineCaribou Productions, LLC a production company dedicated to expanding people's knowledge of wildlife and the world around us. He now lives with his wife, children and many pets near Lake Tahoe, NV.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Spooner the Bear is a children’s animal/picture book written by Jake Willers and illustrated by Lainie Bazzoni. Spooner is a young bear who lives quite close to a small town. The other local bears have gotten used to the idea of getting their food from the trash cans sitting outside the houses every night, and they make a terrible mess as they overturn the cans in their search for treats. Spooner and his friend, Fitzgerald the squirrel, travel to all the nearby towns looking for the messes the marauding bears leave and cleaning them up. At one point, they meet up with a giant bear named Rex, whose stomach is full of garbage from the cans he’s raided. Spooner tells Rex that he’s doing it all wrong. Bears should eat berries and greens, not garbage. Spooner also has a message for the humans he helps each night. If they use bear-proof containers, the bears would leave their garbage alone, and he and Fitzgerald could enjoy themselves at the lake instead of always having to clean up.

Jake Willers’ children’s animal/picture book, Spooner the Bear, is an entertaining and informative book about ways to make co-existence between people and bears work. Bears can’t resist the smells and tastes that exude from those garbage cans, and the resulting mess and unwanted interaction between species can easily be prevented. Lainie Bazzoni’s illustrations are superb! I love the colors and images of the natural places that she portrays, especially those featuring the lake and hillsides. Each panel is brightly and boldly colored, and the bears are a treat to look at, especially Spooner and the giant Rex. This book teaches kids and their parents about bears and how human food and trash is a big lure for them. Spooner the Bear is most highly recommended.