A book set in Bern, about homesickness and longing, and how it’s the simplest things in life that we miss the most.

"Absolutely top was du machst"

"Your book made me extremely happy."

"Your pictures are simply fantastic."

" Your book has become our family favourite"

         A carrot washed up on a Mediterranean beach makes the three runaway bears homesick for the bear pit.

      Simone Müller-Bears by the Sea          Der Bund October 2009

The new bear pit also inspires Bernese artists such as Vicki Cooper.

In her picture book "The Bears  are coming back" she tells a touching parable about the coexistence of man and animal.

Every day carrots? Even a hardened bear has enough at some point.

All the better that the careless tourists drop all kinds of useful things in the pit - sunglasses here, a hat there, and sometimes even a backpack. The inhabitants of the pit have already gathered a considerable amount of things, enough to equip all three with the necessary accessories for a long journey. And so off they go, secretly up and away.

The artist and English teacher Vicki Cooper made her first bear sketches sixteen years ago, but then the sketches disappeared in a drawer together with the idea for a story about carrot weary bears. There they remained until the construction machines drove up the banks of the river Aare and Cooper put pictures and words to paper within a few weeks. And she also found a publisher who published the book simultaneously in German and English: 

"I wrote about 250 e-mails and within 8 days it worked"

says the 45-year-old author Cooper.

One of the characters in the poetic story is the boy Benny, who loves the bear pit even more than the Gurtenbahn and the fountains in front of the Bundeshaus. 

Benny enjoys feeding the bears carrots, but he also tells them stories, and when he tells them one day about his upcoming Spanish holidays, it inspires his friends to flee.

A few days later, the shaggy fellows are sitting on the train and, with their suitcases and hats, one cannot help being reminded of their famous English counterpart Paddington - a beautiful homage. The overtired conductor doesn't notice their disguise any more than Benny's short-sighted grandparents on the Spanish beach later on, and when the bears finally get homesick (symbolized by a washed-up carrot), it's Benny who helps them out of the mess finding them a ride back to Bern in a strawberry lorry. Here, however, nothing is as it was, the pit has been replaced by an extensive park, the bears flight has caused people think and made them act.

Helping the wild bears

A successful statement for supporting species-appropriate environments, conveyed in vivid colours, differentiated brushstrokes and with a well-dosed portion of wisdom: One must sometimes leave things behind, in order that new can be created.

For Vicki Cooper, environmental commitment was part of the book from the very beginning: "Originally, I wanted to draw attention to the environmental damage caused by strawberry imports" says Vicki Cooper. Later, the bears became the focus of the story - part of the proceeds from the book's sale now goes to the WWF's Ursina Project, which is working to find solutions for living with bears in the future. With the wild ones - those who mark out their own territory.