Cub and Brown by Edwina Wyatt

Title: Cub and Brown

Author: Edwina Wyatt

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Walker Books Australia

Published: 2^nd August 2023

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 160

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: A beautiful and heart-warming tale of friendship and adventure.

Cub loves exploring the Great Outdoors – he is prepared for everything. Well, he tries to be. There are plenty of things to learn and tips to follow.

However, Cub isn’t quite sure what he would do if he ever met a bear in the woods. So when Cub meets Brown, he finds that the outdoors, and the indoors, are full of surprises.

~*~

When Cub, a young boy on a scout camp, meets a bear called Brown, who lives in a cabin in the woods, he’s surprised. Cub loves exploring the Great Outdoors – but what would he do if he ever met a bear? And Brown – the bear, is pleased to meet a new friend who loves the outdoors as much as him. As Cub and Brown spend time together over one magical summer whilst Cub is camping. Cub has lots of tips as a Scout, so each chapter is set out as a tip for Scouts. Set over a summer, this book is a delightful venture into a rather unusual friendship.

Cub and Brown is the latest from Edwina Wyatt, author of the Magnolia Moon series. This book is aimed at a similar audience, maybe a little younger, but I would say that it can be read and enjoyed by anyone over the age of six, because we all need light-hearted books like this sometimes. Even though the book consists of twelve chapters – or tips – they are both related through the characters but unrelated through the plots. Each one has a different lesson that Cub and Brown teach each other, and they are based on Cub’s Scout guidelines. I loved this because it gave each story or chapter – however you would like to define them for your reading experience, a structure and goal, and the journey to get there was the fun, important part of this book. For me, it had echoes of Winnie-the-Pooh, but in a very different way. Brown wasn’t a silly old bear obsessed with honey – he had a very unique personality, and he didn’t bumble around – instead, it was as though he was a child learning about the world, like tidying up or that different activities were better indoors rather than outdoors. The gentle reminders that we are all constantly learning were there as well – nobody knows how to do everything because there will always be something new for us to encounter. Sometimes, starting small like Cub and Brow do, is the best way to do so, and sometimes, we need help to do things, to work out how to do things, and there are times that we may need people to do things for us, but we don’t realise it.

Cub and Brown is an exploration of friendship, imagination, and teamwork, and how a short-term relationship like Cub and Brown’s friendship can become one of the most important ones of all. So what if one is a boy and one is a bear? It has all the delights of childhood fun and ingenuity, minus the endearing chaos of Paddington (don’t worry Paddington, I still love your chaos). Brown is a good friend, as is Cub – it showed that friends can come from anywhere and that sometimes the ones we least expect to work out are the ones that are the most special. I felt like this book had a sense of timelessness about it – that it could have happened or been set at any time. I love books like this because I think readers of all ages can get something magical out of it, and it means that there are so many things within the book that are relatable in many ways. I loved this book and hope others enjoy it too.