Shortlisted for the Waterstone's Best Illustrated Book 2015 Friendship is celebrated in Sophy Henn’s heart-warming and visually stunning picture book. Boy and bear are best friends, but the boy realises that the bear is getting just ‘too big and bearish’ to live in a house. But where should he go? Various bearish habitats are tried out and each one is rejected by the bear until finally the boy finds the answer to his question, ‘Then where bear?’. Boy and bear are irresistible characters, their affection for one another obvious on every page and their quest to find the perfect bearish home takes them to all sorts of places, gorgeously illustrated in Henn’s distinctive style. A charming picture book just right for sharing. ~Andrea Reece
Sophy says: Inspiration can come from anywhere. A sweet wrapper, a song, a mood, someone you see in the street, a newspaper story, you just have to keep your eyes and ears open. Saying all that, sometimes characters pop out of my head and into my sketchbook, completely out of the blue, with the hint of a story about them and it's up to me to try and winkle it out of them. That's what happened with Where Bear? I absentmindedly painted a polar bear in a dark wood and he looked a bit lost, and the story went from there.
From a major new picture book talent comes a deceptively simple and exquisitely illustrated picture book about a little boy and his bear and finding a place called home. Told with humour and warmth, this is a story to capture the heart of its reader.
Sophy Henn lives and works in Sussex, England. She studied Fashion at Central Saint Martins, accidentally had a London based career as an Art Director in advertising, then completed an MA at University of Brighton in Illustration. Now she writes and illustrates children's books in her studio, with a large cup of tea by her side, and can't quite believe her luck. Where Bear? was her very first book and since then she has created the wonderful panda character called Pom Pom. She has been nominated for the Greenaway Medal for Where Bear? 2015 and was shortlisted for the AOI Illustration Awards 2014. She was the World Book Day Illustrator for 2016.
