Mur alias bear

Kaisa Happonen 2016: Mur eli karhu
illustrated by Anne Vasko


Mur is not like other bears. He is not sleepy, when bears are supposed to hibernate. And when the others are, s/he gets bored. He starts to think he is not a real bear. He has a brown fur, but he still feels funny.

A lovely picture book about bears and identity. What actually defines us?  I think at some point all of us ask this question. We are defined by so many things: gender, nationality, appearance.

Others hibernate except Mur

Good, good night

Karoliina Blackburn 2008: Hyvää, hyvää yötä
Illustrated by Tuomas Mäkelä

Bear Eikka Messevä's best friend Canada goose Siiri is moving south for the winter. Eikka is going to miss her very much, so he tries to glue the leaves back to the branches and hopes that winter won't come. Siiri leaves, Eikka is supposed to start hibernation, but he cannot.

Eikka meets rabbit family and  herd of reindeer, but they just irritate him. Finally gang of Foxes are so energetic and get him to "fall asleep".


Hibernation is talviuni in Finnish, which directly translated is winter sleep. Many Finns have sleeping problems. This book doesn't actually apply to the humans.

This book has classic streotypes of the animals: rabbits have many kids, reindeers are kind of goofy and foxes are quick and sly.