L'ours qui aimait les arbres / Nicholas Oldland ; texte français de Claudine Azoulay.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

See below for English description.

Il etait une fois un ours tres heureux et tres affectueux. Il avait tellement d'amour a donner qu'il faisait un calin a chaque etre vivant qu'il croisait dans la foret. Mais un jour, il rencontra un humain arme d'une hache. Soudain, il n'eut plus aucune envie d'etre affectueux... A l'aide de personnages charmants, la fable contemporaine de Nicholas Oldland illustre le pouvoir extraordinaire d'un calin.

A huge bear is wandering through the forest - but wait a minute! Who's that he's hugging? A beaver? And a moose? And a bird? And a tree?

Welcome to the world of Big Bear Hug, a contemporary fable about a bear who has an appetite for hugging everything in sight - even creatures that bears have been known to eat. One day, the benevolent bear meets up with a human. This human proceeds to do something the bear cannot understand: he raises his axe and begins to cut down a tree. Suddenly the bear doesn't feel like hugging anymore and must make a difficult decision on how to stop this destruction in his forest.

The environmental message of Big Bear Hug is both funny and powerful, while simple enough to engage very young children and show them the awesome power of a hug.

Original title: Big Bear Hug