23 May 2011 BEAR WITH ME by Max Kornell, Putnam, May 2011, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-399-25257-0

"I had a little brother

And brought him to my mother

And I said I want another

Little brother for a change..."

-- Mary Ann Hoberman, "Brother"

"Who has a little brother?"  That's what I ask my young audiences -- while signaling them to raise their hands -- before I begin reciting Mary Ann Hoberman's poem which (as a firstborn) is one of my all-time favorites. 

You see, I have a little brother.  Fifty-three years later, I can still remember when my mother disappeared to go have him.  It was one of those rarer-then-rare occasions when both of my grandmothers were at our house at the same time.  Mom gone.  Two grandmothers sitting side-by-side on the couch.  This clearly was not a good sign. 

And it wasn't.

He was trouble as a little kid: By the time he was three, my maternal grandmother was talking about him growing up to be a lawyer with the way he'd argue.  I remember, some years later, being behind Cedar Road School and having to back away from a bunch of big kids he'd angered by mouthing off to them.  Me pushing him away, him still mouthing.

He was trouble as a teenager.  It would drive me nuts that he would successfully demand that Mom prepare him something different for dinner from what everyone else had.  And then he'd expect her cut it up for him, too!

But he got better when he grew up.  Right?  Guess again.  I just got off the phone with him 15 minutes ago and he is still trouble.

And so now you know why I love BEAR WITH ME by Max Kornell, which is an amazingly funny story of a firstborn boy whose parents bring home a new family member.  Only instead of it being a typical younger sibling story, these parents bring home a BEAR!  The bear is named Gary. 

You have the usual issues that arrive with a new family member: The parents are too busy with the new family member to give all their attention to the firstborn like they used to.  The new family member breaks stuff and uses stuff without asking.  On top of that, Gary snores!  ("Gary's snores are so loud that it sounds like there is a helicopter flying around in circles in my room.")

In the long run, the firstborn discovers that Gary is actually pretty cool to have around.  Now, for me, having lived the past 53 years with a little brother, that is not a particularly realistic way to end the story.  But probably the author is a younger sibling and so he gets to make this a fantasy story.