What an adorable story of determination! With rhyming prose and fabulous illustrations, Never Brush a Bear will delight our youngest school children. This story was reminiscent of the relationship between the boy and mouse in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, in the sense of the human/animal/prose/circular story. My first graders will delight in this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange of my opinion.

Lovely fun children's story book. Cute story and nice illustrations. My daughter loved reading this and the message behind it. Recommend

This is a charming title that would make a great addition to any story time on rhyming, bears, parts of the body, etc. It encourages participation as children could pretend to brush parts of their body as the main character, Herschel, brushes the bear. I would recommend this to anyone!

A cute story that reminds one of There’s a Monster at the End of this Book. Sweet illustrations and rhyming text will make this a sought after book in the classroom library!

This delightful picture book will have readers laughing as Herschel takes them on a journey to brush a bear. Herschel loves grooming pets of all sorts but he really, really wants to pet a bear. Beautiful illustrations with hidden details that add meaning and humor to the story. Kids will ask to read this one over and over again.

I loved this story for so many reasons!! The illustrations were bright and colorful, the rhyming verse was charming, but will also elicit some giggles, and furthermore it breaks gender stereotypes! A great addition to any young readers home library!

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a must-purchase! Love the name (Herschel), love that he wants to be a stylist, love the cover (pink!) and I love that this character is so determined even though the 'narrator' keeps warning him off the goal. What a joy!

This is an absolutely delightful picture book. The illustrations are bright, fanciful and most engaging. The rhyming text should delight the youngest readers as they learn about a young hair stylist. Just adorable!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto-Frances Lincoln Children’s’ Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

Quarto books never fails us! This little story pairs happy, bold illustrations with a catchy rhyming narrative and really just feels like a fun time. Themes include bravery, ambition, and follow-through. So delightful!

Thanks to Net Galley and Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Children's Books for this ARC.

Lovely illustrations, with lots to talk about outside of the story too. Lots of giggles from my little one and bear roars too

Review to come on August 9th on blog and early September to Goodreads/other places.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just HAD to read this book. A book about a boy who loves to brush hair, who loves to pamper pets and who is very awesome at it. But what happens when the kid wants to brush a bear? Is that a good idea? I just had to find out!

Meet Herschel a boy who loves pampering pets and who has great dreams of awards and to coiffuring all sorts of animals. Yep, here is a boy who doesn't just want to do the normal pets, oh no, he wants to do it all! But most of all he wants to do a big BIG bear! As you can imagine that may just not be the right idea, but was I in for it? And was I hoping that he would succeed? Was I eager to see what he would do to make a bear look fabulous? Oh yes to all of it. I was invested and I loved that the kid dreamt big. Didn't care the bears are scary.

I loved how the narrator, at least I am going to just say it is the narrator, is trying to tell Herschel that it is a bad idea. That he should turn around. But then later even the narrator is eager and encourages the boy which I just loved. It made me giggle. Even the narrator was convinced that maybe Herschel would be able to do it.

I loved seeing Herschel brush and groom and pamper the bear, because BOY that bear definitely needed a brush, haha. He was almost the forest itself.

The ending just made me giggle and laugh! That was a fantastic ending and I am sure that the bear will be one of Herschel customers for life.

The art was just fantastic as I was already hoping based on the cover. It was just so cute and fun with tons of fun details! I also loved the colours.

All in all, this book made me cheer, laugh, giggle, and smile. And it was just what I needed (not feeling all too well these past 2 weeks so this was perfect). I would HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone in need for a giggle and those who love a protagonist not afraid to make his dreams come true.

This delightful rhyming picture book tells the story of a little boy named Herschel who enjoys pampering his stuffed animals and pets. One day Herschel decides he'd like to brush a bear. Readers are quite concerned and try to advise him otherwise, but Herschel is pretty determined and despite all of their warnings he finds that bears actually quite like being brushed. The only problem is they get messy again quite quickly, so you must start all over again. I can definitely see young children loving this book and all of it's quirky ideas. I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of children in the age 3-8 range. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

I received an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books through NetGalley.
Delightful story about Herschel who wants to be an award winning stylist. He brushes pets' fur and keeps them looking their best. His heart's desire is to brush a bear. Readers and the narrator will have fun sharing why this might not be a good idea, but will see Herschel pursues it anyway. We discover that this bear loves to be brushed after a winter nap, and the two of them have a wonderful time together.
Colorful illustrations capture the fun and humor to match Hearn's text.

This is a cute and silly book. My daughter and I were laughing along as he goes to brush a bear.
The illustrations are really cute too.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Never Brush a Bear…WHY not?! Check out this review to find out.

What an adorable story with super cute illustrations. The colors used are so unique and give off a glow of fun!
This is a great book for young and beginner readers. Beware this story may cause uncontrollable giggling and tons of family fun.
I must say… I now may consider brushing a bear myself 😊

Grateful to have received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley & Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books, Happy Yak

I am not sure if I get it right, but I feel like the intention behind the story is to spur children to take care of their own appearance ( I would imagine in real life when parents saying: brush your hair, and kids are reluctant to). In the story, the character enjoys brushing hair for all his animal toys, and he even went to find a bear and brush him. The text is fluent, and sounds like the parents of the character talking to him. Simple story with cute characters, I think it would be a fun book for parents to read with their early age children.

Initially I was outraged at the narrator's attempt to dissuade ambitious young groomer Herschel from brushing a bear; I will always regret failing to pat that one near Herne Bay who had shuffled their fuzzy butt through the diamonds in the wire fence while making puppy-dog eyes. Don't leave Herschel as haunted by what he could have done as I am, narrator! Fortunately, the lad is wise enough to ignore the advice, goes in search of a bear to brush, and has a grand old time. The other animals along the way are beautifully rendered too, especially the scruffy guinea pig, although I imagine parents in grizzly country might wish to proceed with caution on the lessons learned here.

(Netgalley ARC)

Never Brush a Bear is a really fun story about a boy named Herschel and his desire to use his hairbrush on a bear! I loved the fun illustrations and the cute storyline. not scary.

Grrr! Fur-tastic fun for everyone. 🧸♥️
And as you can see, the rhyming is contagious.

I have recently discovered the pure joy of reading kid's books, so when I saw a children’s book about a big grizzly bear, (A man I love very much has the nickname Grizzly 😂🥰) I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
And I’m glad I didn’t!

Adorable, funny and so many levels of cuteness it’s verging on overload.
The story itself is gorgeous and I love the message I got from it. (Might be my age over analysing. Lol)
You can do and be whatever your heart desires. There might be challenges and obstacles along the way, but with self-belief and determination, you can achieve anything.

Then we move on to the delightfully whimsical illustrations. Perfection. So colourful, creative and above all else, fun!
The whole book just screams fun!

Kids are sure to love Herschel and his quest to brush a bear. Be it for the fabulous rhymes to the eye-catching pictures, it’s a book that they will, without a doubt, pick up time and time again.

Thank you so much, NetGalley & Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, for the adorable arc ebook. And even though I’m not the intended audience, I’ll be adding this to my ever-growing children’s collection.

A fun story about Herschel, who really just wants to brush a bear's hair. While the narrator warns Herschel that brushing a bear's hair is not a good idea, Herschel finds a bear that actually seems to love to be brushed! The rhyming in the book was fun and the story was engaging for littles.