Snow Bears - Hardcover

Martin Waddell is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest living writers of books for children. His work includes Farmer Duck, Owl Babies and the 1989 Kurt Maschler Award-winning The Park in the Dark, also illustrated by Barbara Firth. In 2004 he won the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. He lives in Northern Ireland. Sarah Fox-Davies was born in London in 1956, and studied at Hornsey and Croydon Colleges of Art, before taking a four-year course in Graphic Design and Illustration. Focusing on illustrating animals in their natural environments (bats, beavers, bears, cats, wolves and even a caribou), Sarah also has a particular interest in natural history, and has contributed illustrations to a number of field guides and gardening books. She now lives in Wales.

PreSchool-Young children will easily associate with the pretend game that three little bears play. When their mother comes outside, the snow-covered cubs tell her that they are "snow bears," and she asks where her babies are. "I don't know where we are," says the biggest one. "We aren't here, Mummy Bear," says the littlest one. So, she frolics with them instead. Eventually, the smallest one gets cold and they all go inside for hot toast, where their covering melts and they reveal that they were just pretending. The story is slight and not particularly original, but youngsters are likely to enjoy the repeated refrain about not having seen Mummy's bears, and the very predictability of the text is reassuring. The color illustrations are pleasant, with large, realistically drawn bears, making the fact that they live in a house rather than in a cave seem somewhat incongruous. However, their activities work equally well for bears or preschoolers, and the large, fuzzy creatures on the snowy background are appealing. This title does not live up to the caliber of the author's Owl Babies or Can't You Sleep Little Bear (both Candlewick, 1992), but the target audience is likely to find it engaging.
Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT
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