Spring Stinks: A Little Bruce Book (Mother Bruce Series)

Bruce the bear remains true to his grouchy nature in this smaller-format picture book, unimpressed by the smells of spring, as they are presented to him by an eager little bunny named Ruth. The green grass, sweet daisies and woodsy-fresh trees all fail to win him over, but the climax comes when

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Ruth douses him with honey... something that smells like trouble to our ursine hero!

After debuting in author/illustrator Ryan T. Higgins' 2016 Mother Bruce, this eponymous bear's grumpy adventures have been chronicled in six additional full-sized picture books, as well as in two board books, a few early readers, and a number of these smaller, square picture books. Spring Stinks is the first of the latter that I have tracked down, owing to my fondness for the character and his goslings (not to mention the mice!). Unfortunately, while the artwork here was as droll as ever, and while the story itself had that same sense of humor (all tied to Bruce's perpetual gloom), somehow this one didn't work as well for me, as some other titles in the series. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with it, but it felt a little flat to me, in comparison to some of the other books. I'll probably still track down the other titles in this format—as mentioned, the illustrations were enjoyable, elevating this from a two or two-and-a-half-star to three-star read—but I think I would really only recommend this one to devoted fans of the character and his world.

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