Bear and Bunny
Daniel Pinkwater illustrated by Will Hillenbrand
This is a cave in the woods.
It is just right, this cave,
for a bear to live in.
And a bear does live in it.
This is another cave. A small one.
Too small for a bear.
It is not so much a cave as a hole.
A bunny lives here.
The bunny and the bear are friends.
They like to wander in the woods, They like to sing.
look for things to eat,
and talk things over.
Sometimes the bear wanders alone, doing bear things.
Sometimes the bunny wanders alone, doing bunny things.
Here is the bear wandering alone, singing a song:
“I wonder
I wonder
I wonder where
I wonder where my little bear is.”
Here is the bunny wandering alone, singing a song:
“I wonder
I wonder
I wonder where
I wonder where my big bunny is.”
You see, the bear is sure the bunny is a very small bear. “What did you see in the forest today?”
The bunny is sure the bear is a very large bunny. “I saw a great many pinecones.”
This is not so, but it would be too hard to explain
it to them. Besides, it doesn’t matter. “Wow! That is interesting.
Were there really a lot of them?”
“Oh yes, many.”
“What did you see in the forest today?” asked the bear.
“I saw a caterpillar.”
“You didn’t! What was it doing?”
“It was crawling along.”
“Imagine that! I wish I had seen it.”
The bear and the bunny made up a new song:
“The forest is an interesting place
Interesting place
Interesting place.
There are things to see
Such as pinecones and caterpillars
Pinecones and caterpillars.
Interesting place
Interesting place.”
Then they took naps.
After their naps, the bunny asked, “Why do we not
have some kind of pet?”
“I don’t know,” the bear said. “What is a pet?”
“Well, it is an animal.”
“We are animals.”
“We are, but a pet is an animal you take care of
and feed, and it loves you.”
“I love you,” the bear said.
“I love you too,” the bunny said. “But a pet is different.
If we had a pet, it would be smaller, and not as clever
as we are. It would need us to take care of it.”
The bear thought for a while.
Then he asked, “Could a pinecone be a pet?”
The bunny thought for a while. “Could a caterpillar be a pet?
“No, a pinecone could not be a pet.” They are animals, are they not?”
“They are nice.” “Well, yes. A caterpillar could be a pet.
And they are nice.”
“True, but they are not animals.”
“Would we feed it?
“Oh.” The bear thought some more. Would it need us to take care of it?
Would it love us?”
“Mostly, caterpillars just crawl along,” said the bunny. “Don’t get me wrong,” the bear said. “I think caterpillars
“They eat leaves they find all by themselves. I don’t are nice. But I don’t see that a caterpillar would be
know if one would love us. They never say anything.” very much fun.”
The bear and the bunny thought for a while. “We could watch it eat leaves,” the bunny said.
“Yes.”
“But would that be enough?”
“No.”
“This is too much thinking,” the bear said.
“I need another nap.”
“I need one too,” the bunny said.
After their naps, the bear and the bunny decided to
wander through the woods together and see what
they could see.
“Wandering together
Wandering together
Wandering together to see
what we can see.”
“I see something!” the bear said. “Look!”
“Look where?”
“Up! Up in the tree!”
“I see it! What is it?”
“Some sort of animal.”
There was an animal, a small animal, up in a tree.
“What sort of animal is that?”
“CROAK!” said the animal.
“It is a kitty,” said the bear.
“A kitty?”
“Yes.”
“But it is up in a tree. Are you sure it is a kitty
and not a bird?” asked the bunny.
“CROAK!” said the animal up in the tree.
“Kitties get up in trees sometimes,” the bear said.
“Then they cannot get down. I will climb up and help it.”
“Here is the kitty, safe and sound,” the bear said.
“CROAK!”
“It is nice,” the bunny said. “Let me pet the kitty too.”
“CROAK!” said the kitty.
“Do you know what I am thinking?” the bear asked.
“No. What are you thinking?”
“I am thinking this kitty could be our pet,” the bear said.
“You will not believe this, but I was thinking the same thing,”
the bunny said.
“Kitty, would you like to be our pet?”
“CROAK!”
“It would! It would like to be our pet!”
“Let’s take it home and make a nice place
for it to sleep and give it food.”
“What do kitties eat?”
“Strawberries, I think.”
“Strawberries?”
“I think so. We will give it
strawberries, and if it does
not want those, we can
try other things.”
“Very good idea. Do you want to come home with us,
kitty, and eat strawberries, or possibly other things?”
“CROAK!”
“I think the kitty loves us.”
“I think so too.”
For Jill. All creatures like her, even ones that are unlike her.
D. P.
To Ollie, who thinks the world is an interesting place,
interesting place, interesting place
W. H.
Text copyright © 2015 by Daniel Pinkwater
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Will Hillenbrand
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information
retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,
taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First edition 2015
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014953067
ISBN 978-0-7636-7153-2
15 16 17 18 19 20 CCP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
This book was typeset in Aged.
The illustrations were done in mixed media.
Candlewick Press
99 Dover Street
Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
visit us at www.candlewick.com
