Picture This: Mother Bruce

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

Bruce, a grumpy bear, lives alone, and that's the way he likes it. The only hobby he enjoys is cooking and eating eggs. When a few of his eggs hatch, he tries to return the goslings to their mother but she's gone for the winter. He tries to abandon the goslings, but they follow him. As they get older he tries to get them to fly south, but they won't leave. Will bear ever be rid of these geese?

Hilarious. A story and style reminiscent of classics, but with a modern edge. Bruce is a foodie who likes to find fancy recipes on the internet. He wants free-range organic eggs, and the narrator explains that he likes to support local business under an illustration of a mangled beehive. The illustrations are fantastic. Just look at the endpages—a lovely woodland scene with the sun shining through the trees. But of course key to this story are facial expressions—specifically Bruce’s. They are instrumental in producing all the laughs, and they’re executed perfectly every time. Writing, illustrating, timing--all just right. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that it just keeps getting funnier.