Mother Bruce
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- £8.49
Publisher Description
Bruce the bear likes to keep to himself. That, and eat eggs. But when his hard-boiled goose eggs turn out to be real, live goslings, he starts to lose his appetite. And even worse, the goslings are convinced he's their mother. Bruce tries to get the geese to go south, but he can't seem to rid himself of his new companions. What's a bear to do?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bruce is a grumpy bear. He's also a thieving and unscrupulous bear, and he likes to take eggs from nests ("He cooked them into fancy recipes he found on the internet"). But four eggs he grabs from a goose don't cook. They hatch. The four goslings that emerge follow Bruce everywhere, and no matter how he threatens even when he bares his fangs and roars the adorable big-footed goslings look merely puzzled. Little by little, the geese break Bruce down ("Bruce was stuck with them. He tried to make the best of it") and wear away at his dignity; in one scene he glares darkly beside a wading pool in water wings and flippers. Having passed through goose infancy and goose adolescence (complete with headphones) into adulthood, the geese refuse to migrate; Bruce has to improvise. Higgins (Wilfred) dwells satisfyingly on Bruce's forbidding scowls and tubby middle, and even portrays properly the change from gosling fuzz to adult Canada goose plumage. It's a droll look at conflict won by the underdog and in its way a book about unconventional families. Ages 3 5.
