It has that certain innocence that is so often lacking in children’s literature, particularly for boys, today. There are no gadgets here, no electronic gizmos. A rather unusual, whimsical adventure, I’ll grant you that, but nonetheless a heartwarming and funny one. It has all the ingredients of an old-fashioned adventure story, and feels very much like one when you are reading it. Which I guess, in a child’s imagination, it is. Team this up with an endless blue sea, a rather limited game of “I Spy”, a glow-in-the-dark sandwich, a sea monster and a oh-so-very-British tea break complete with bone china and you have yourself an adventure. One of the aspects of the story I loved the most is that it is a boy, coming from nowhere, going on a boat with a bear, to get to the other side of the water, and nothing more is said about it, as it the most perfectly natural thing in the world. It is a beautifully tender and enchanting story of a developing friendship between two most unlikely characters, in the most improbable of settings. A Boy and a Bear in a Boat is an absolute gem of a book.
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