Book Review of How the Bears Were Saved
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The Children’s Book Review
How the Bears Were Saved
Written and illustrated by Patty Christiena Willis
Ages: 4-6 | 46 Pages
Publisher: Rhino River Press (2026) | ISBN: 979-8-9978809-0-3
What to Expect: Japanese folklore, helping others, memories, time spent in nature.
In this beautiful folktale, readers will learn messages about resilience, reciprocity, and the long-reaching consequences that kindness to others can have.
One winter, heavy rains washed away the food the bears depended on to prepare for their winter hibernation. They knew they had just one hope: stories passed down through generations of bears told that if they went down the mountain, the foxes would help them—so down the mountain they went. But when the humans in the village saw the bears, they became frightened, imagining the bears to be dangerous monsters. They decided to hunt the bears. Just in time, the foxes got the bears fed, tucked in to bed, and hidden for the winter—but will the canny humans spot the bears in their hiding place? Perhaps … but perhaps the hunters are having too much fun searching for the bears to try very hard. And, to the foxes’ surprise, help comes from an unexpected quarter too—one kind human who decided to let sleeping bears lie.
The foxes who tell the story are wise and kind, and the bears they rescue are majestic. Although they are technically the villains of the story, the humans are portrayed with empathy and humor, almost childlike in their quickness to fear, their impetuous actions, and their easy distraction by the fun of going on a bear hunt. The text is lyrical and flowing, with a rhythm that lends itself well to reading aloud. Hand-drawn artwork depicts humanized foxes and bears against a dark blue background deeply evocative of the winter night, while pattern is used to add texture to both the natural environment and the colorful clothes that the people and animals wear.
Simple in its messaging and uplifting in its ending, How the Bears Were Saved is sure to be enjoyed by any reader who loves stories about the secret lives of animals.
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About the Author
Before Patty Christiena’s second birthday, her geologist father and intrepid mother moved the family to Venezuela. After three years in Venezuela, her father’s work took the family to Libya for a year and Bahrain for five years. Each night before sleep, her father opened one of the books of fairy tales and folk tales of Russia, Germany, Japan, and all the places in between and read to her and her siblings. With those images in her head of faraway places where tailors became kings and kings paraded in their underwear, she slept. These images emerged in magical stories and illustrations, including a giant fairy who said, “Just imagine.”
Her love of travel and folk culture took her to Japan, where she immersed herself in the study of the Japanese language and literature. Picking up a brush to learn calligraphy led her back to the illustration of her childhood. Her paintings and theater works have been exhibited and performed at galleries and stages in Japan, the U.S. and Scotland. Her illustrated novel “The Village Above the Stars,” published in Japanese, was on the recommended reading list of the Japanese National Library Association. She and her musician partner, Mary Lou Prince, now live in Tucson, Arizona.
For more information, visit www.pattycwillis.com.
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