A beautifully illustrated and simple story that explores the true meaning of friendship, “A Friend for Little Bear” was inspired while Harry was sitting side-by-side with Mandy and absent-mindedly watching the games his three-year-old nephew Lewis made up to play in his paddling pool.

Little Bear lives all alone on a desert island. He longs for something or someone to play with when, one day, a wooden horse comes floating by in the sea. Thrilled to stumble across a new friend, Little Bear and wooden horse enjoy a wonderful time playing together.

But, like a magpie, Little Bear can’t resist pulling more bounty ashore. Soon the island becomes so cluttered that his first playmate – the wooden horse – is almost lost when it tumbles, unnoticed, from the top of the pile into the sea, teaching Little Bear about the real value of friendship.

Patricia Mahoney Brown, writing in School Library Journal, paid tribute to an “effective springboard for discussions on friendship, values, materialism, loneliness, and happiness.”

In a Publishers Weekly review, the author's watercolour illustrations were dubbed “a cut above” and “refreshing.”