A super cute read! The kids in my class really loved reading this together. I look forward to introducing them to more Mark Grist books!

Lovely pictures, sweet characters, nice rhyming text. It focuses on Bella's nerves before a performance. It would be a particularly good story to read before children perform in a show at school or in one of their clubs, just to show them that it's normal to feel afraid and a strategy to try if they are really scared. A supportive, happy, encouraging book with a humorous twist. And it just normalises feeling scared and shows how we need people to help us through it.

Bella the bear gets the wibbly-wobbles when cast in the lead for the school play. In one of the brighter reads to discuss butterflies, angst, dread, sudden lack of apparent bravery – call it what you want – we get a very nicely rhymed narrative, with colourful illustrations showing the animal characters at work on the show, and a suitably happy ending. Some people may prefer more sage advice, and more in the way of things to do to counter the gut-wrenching fear featured, but this is for a younger audience that just needs evidence that the collywobbles can be bested, and not countless mindfulness exercises to get us on the way to calm. Very much succeeding in that aim, this is a definite four stars.

Lovely story which normalises nerves. As a mother of a toddler we've seen our fair share of wobbly wobbles. We used this book to start a conversation about nerves which went really well. The illustrations are lovely, and there's some fun humour for the adults too.

A fun and highly re-readable story for little ones and their adults, as a young Bear is surprised to feel fear along with excitement at the the thought of performing the lead in her school's play of Little Red Riding Hood. Armed with advice from her grandmother, she learns that bravery isn't the absence of fear, but finding ways to manage our wibble-wobbles and act anyway - onstage or off! Vivid, fun illustrations by Chris Jevons offer plenty to enjoy page-by-page and on re-readers, while Mark Grist's words largely scan very well and have a lovely liveliness and playfulness to them to balance out the important messaging bubbling along beneath. A very good kids picture book, enjoyable for adults too.

i loved it! It has a powerful message about facing your fears which is really important to give the children!

Brilliant book, showing children that it’s okay to be scared.
A vibrant, beautifully illustrated story, about Bella the bear who gets a part in a play and her and her Grandma talk about Bella being scared of being on stage.
Great story, highly recommend. My 1 year old absolutely loved the illustrations

I read this story with my 7 year old daughter last night and she loved it!

The story was well written and had a lovely flow to the story, the writing style worked really well, it was at the perfect pace and she loved that she could read it to me.

The illustrations are spot on and perfect for the book and they really help bring the story of Bella, her Grandma and friends to life – she really sympathised with Bella as at her nativity in December last year she was the Narrator and had the most lines and was always at the front on the corner of the stage and it was a bit daunting to start.

It is 5 stars from me for this one, very highly recommended and it is a lovely book!

Bears Don’t Get Scared is about a young bear and her granny overcoming fear.
Vibrant, imaginative and lovely illustrations accompany the text; fear is made easier to express and understand. It has a small twist, as great as a twist in a picture-book with a lesson can be. Moreover, it is fun.