Little Bear and the Marco Polo

 Written by Else Holmelund Minarik

Illustrated by Dorothy Doubleday

What a disappointment.  I usually love the little bear books.  They've got tons of repetition, so they're great little readers, and they focus on little bear's character.

This one is all about how his grandfather was a captain of a ship and then settled down and got married.

 There's a bit about the bears of the world.  The rest is typical patriarchal "what is marriage" garbage.  And, whatever, obviously I'm married and have kids, and lots of people are married and have kids, but books about that are BORING.

I don't care what Grandpa bear did.  I want to hear about Little Bear's pretend adventures.  That was what was so great about the earlier books.  (The other 5 books in the series were written 40 years before this one.)

Sendak did the pictures in the original series.  They got a new illustrator for this book, and it shows.   Just what is going on here with Grandpa bear?

No crosshatch, either.  Crosshatch is so, so charming when done well.

My daughter didn't really notice how bad it was, but she didn't ask to read it again, like the other books.