Paired Text: Leaves and Every Autumn Comes The Bear

Paired texts can help build comprehension skills in young readers. Here are two books that work well together as a paired text, along with a few discussion questions to use with your students to help enhance understanding of both books. The two books in this pair are Leaves by David Ezra Stein and Every Autumn Comes The Bear by Jim Arnosky. If you have a copy of these books, read them both to your students. Alternatively, here are links to videos of both books being read aloud on our YouTube channel:

After reading both books, ask the following questions:

1. In Leaves, why did the bear wonder if the trees were okay?

2. Do you think this bear is friendly? What things in the story make you think so?

3. In Every Autumn Comes The Bear, when does the bear show up?

4. Do you think this bear is friendly? What things in the story make you think that way?

5. What differences can you find in the way the two bears prepared for winter?

6. Was there anything the same about the two bears?