Picture · ages 4–8

The Bear who Wasn't There and the Fabulous Forest

Name: The Bear who Wasn't There and the Fabulous Forest
Author: Oren Lavie
ISBN: 9781617754906

Written by Oren Lavie · Illustrated by Wolf Erlbruch

Top giftableAdults love it tooEndlessly rereadable

A whimsical fable about a bear who wakes up having lost himself and journeys through a nonsensical forest to find who he is. Playful, philosophical and gorgeously illustrated by Wolf Erlbruch.

Best for4–8
FormatPicture
Length48 pp
Read aloud~10 min

Where to buyPaperback

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The vibe

What it’s like.

Style

Conversational
Literary

Tone

Whimsical
Funny
Warm
Absurdist

Themes

On the pageself discovery, bear, imagination, forest, animals

Experience meters

Energy2/ 5

Humour4/ 5

Scariness1/ 5

Peril1/ 5

Wonder4/ 5

Cosiness3/ 5

Emotional intensity2/ 5

Conceptual intensity2/ 5

What’s it about?

The story.

A bear wakes up one morning to find he has misplaced something rather important: himself. Armed only with a scrap of paper listing three clues about the bear he is looking for, that he is nice, that he is happy, and that he is very handsome too, he sets off into the Fabulous Forest. Along the way he meets a cast of gloriously silly companions, among them the Convenience Cow, the Lazy Lizard and the Penultimate Penguin, each offering their own peculiar help. By the end of his search the bear discovers that the wonderful creature he has been hunting for was himself all along. Songwriter and author Oren Lavie tells this gentle, absurd little quest with warmth and wit, while Hans Christian Andersen Medal winner Wolf Erlbruch fills the forest with strange, beautiful, richly textured art. A funny and quietly reassuring picture book about knowing and liking who you are.

Fit check

Right for your child?

Where it lands by age

A shared read-aloud from about 4 to 8, with the wordplay and absurd humour landing best when performed. Independent readers of 6 to 8 can enjoy it alone, and the artwork rewards adult co-readers too.

Best fit · 4–8
Read aloud · 4–8
Independent · 6–8

Prose load

Moderate

Visual support

Very high

Reluctant-reader friendly

Workable

Read-aloud quality

Strong

Works well for

Reading aloud
Bedtime
Reading together
Gift-buying

Low sensitivityNo content warnings

Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.

Bedtime suitability

4 / 5 · Bedtime-friendly

Sensitive-child

5 / 5 · Good fit

Graphic intensity

1 / 5 · None

Best for

Whimsical stories
Identity
Beautiful art
Imaginative children

Avoid if

Wants realism
Dislikes nonsense

Particularly good for children who are…

Low self esteem

Why it lands

Why they love it.

Why kids love it

The idea of losing yourself and having to go looking is deliciously silly, and the forest is stuffed with daft characters like the Penultimate Penguin. Children love the joke and the warm surprise of the ending, where the bear finds he is exactly what he wanted.

Being understood finally
Adventure and freedom
Secret world

Why parents love it

A songwriter's ear for playfulness meets Wolf Erlbruch's extraordinary art in a picture book that is funny on the surface and quietly reassuring underneath. A lovely, offbeat read-aloud about liking who you turn out to be.

Beautiful illustrations
Great writing
Conversation starter
Indie gem discovery

About the creators

About the creators.

Oren Lavie

Writer · Israel · b. 1976

Oren Lavie is an Israeli songwriter, theatre director and author who brings a musician's ear and a taste for the whimsical to picture books. Best known internationally as a singer-songwriter, he made his children's-book debut with The Bear Who Wasn't There and the Fabulous Forest, illustrated by the celebrated German artist Wolf Erlbruch. It is a gentle, absurdist fable about a bear who has misplaced himself and sets off through a nonsensical forest, meeting a cast of gloriously silly companions, before discovering that the creature he has been hunting for was himself all along. Lavie writes with warmth, wit and a lightly philosophical touch, wrapping a quietly reassuring message about knowing and liking who you are inside plenty of playful nonsense. His work suits four-to-eight-year-olds who enjoy a story that is funny, strange and a little bit thoughtful.

Wolf Erlbruch

Illustrator · Germany · b. 1948

Wolf Erlbruch (1948-2022) was a German illustrator and author widely regarded as one of the masters of the picture book, and a professor of illustration for many years. His work ranged from the gleefully rude to the profoundly philosophical. He illustrated the endlessly rereadable The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business, a toilet-humour classic that quietly teaches a zoo's worth of droppings, and both wrote and illustrated Duck, Death and the Tulip, a spare, astonishingly calm fable in which a duck befriends Death himself. His illustrations for Oren Lavie's The Bear Who Wasn't There show the same tender, surreal wit. Unafraid of mortality and the meaning of life, Erlbruch made books that speak to children and adults alike, and his gently surrealist style has been widely imitated across Europe and beyond.