On Bear's fourth birthday, his grandparents visit and give him his own photograph album. Bear sees photos of his parents before he was born; his expectant mother; himself shortly after birth; and other happy family events through his third birthday, when he had chicken pox. Yasuo Ohtomo illustrated this family of anthropomorphous bears by sketching thin black ink outlines and coloring them with delicately shaded pencil marks. My favorite illustration is a tender scene of the mother holding her nursing infant Bear. My four year old son was a bit puzzled by the illustration that shows one year old Bear with a pillow tied to his back "to help him walk"---he was satisfied when I explained that the book was originally intended for a Japanese audience, and that people all over the word have different parenting practices. A lovely little book.