Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

A beautifully illustrated picture book that tells a mostly visual story about a bear that falls into a river. Don’t worry, he’s fine! He finds a tree trunk to carry him downriver and as he drifts along, he picks up a whole bunch of other animals. That’s really all there is to the story but what makes it a fun, memorable experience is the sheer variety of friends he makes: there’s funny Froggy, Turtles in a tizzy, beaming Beaver, raucous Raccoons, dazed Duckie (the adjectives are all mine) and what seems a simple trip downstream ends up seeming a wild adventure. Isn’t that what the best moments of childhood friendship are about? Making unexpected friends and having little daily adventures with them that don’t seem like much when we look back as adults but seemed so epic at the time? You had to be there to really feel it! Bear Came Along gave me a glimpse back of some of those childhood adventure years.