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diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)

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Bear and the Wildcat (The) by Kazumi Yumoto

Title: Bear and the Wildcat (The)

Author: Kazumi Yumoto

Translator: Cathy Hirano

Illustrator: Komako Sakai

Publisher: Gecko Press

Date Published: 2023

Format: Hardback

Genre:

Book Category: Picture Book

Age Range: 6-8

Original Title: First published in Japanese as Kuma to Yamaneko, Kawade Shobo Shinsha Publishers, Japan, 2008. First published in English by Gecko Press, 2011

Country of Origin: Japan

Bear and the Wildcat (The)

by Kazumi Yumoto
Age Range: 6-8

After eleven years and by popular demand, this stunning picture book by Japanese author Kazumi Yumoto with its exquisite translation by Cathy Hirano has been reissued.

“One morning Bear was crying. His best friend, a little bird, was dead”. When Bear’s friend Little Bird dies, he’s inconsolable. Bear makes a beautiful box in which he places his friend and carries it with him wherever he goes. His animal friends are upset when they discover what’s in the box and tell Bear that he must forget the little bird because he is never coming back to life. This makes Bear very sad. Consumed by grief, he locks himself away in his house. “Day and night, he sat in the dark, shut up in his room”. Then one day he opens the window and discovers that the sun is shining and the breeze is scented with grass.

Bear goes for a walk and chances upon a strange wildcat napping on the river bank. The two animals fall into conversation and then the wildcat gets out his violin and begins to play. As Bear listens to the beautiful music he begins to remember all the good times he had with Little Bird. Finally, he can say goodbye to his friend, knowing he will always have wonderful memories.

Best known for her young adult fiction, Yumoto has written this moving picture book with such depth and empathy. It is both astute and sensitive as it deals with bereavement, loss, loneliness, and depression and shows that there is a way through Bear’s paralysing grief whilst at the same time demonstrating the uplifting story of friendship and new beginnings because at last, Bear meets someone who understands how he feels.

The delicate charcoal artwork by popular Japanese illustrator, Komako Sakai combines different shades of black and hints of pink appear in some of the illustrations towards the end of the story that cleverly reflect Bear’s change of mood.

This moving story can be appreciated by anyone, including adults, as it reaches out across all age ranges. The Bear and the Wildcat will also be an invaluable guide to grieving in picture book form and a resource for parents, carers and teachers to use with young children.

Other titles by Kazumi Yumoto reviewed on the website are: Letters to the Living (Floris Books, UK, 2003), The Spring Tone (Laurel-Leaf Books, USA, 1999) and The Friends (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, USA, 1996).

For further information visit the Gecko website.