Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #274674 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780439495240
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1–With comforting, carefully chosen words and soft pastels shading linocut prints, this book has all the elements to make it a bedtime favorite. A polar bear cub leaves the security of her warm den to discover something special out in the cold arctic air. The words "The night is keen and cold" have both a visceral and riveting effect. The choice of colors for each page establishes the mood; as the little cub sets off into snow she finds a world shaded in pink and violet, with a deep black/green sky. The comfort is reinforced at the sight of the sleeping animals she encounters, and the repetition of phrases ("She sees the seals…. She sees the whales") keeps the rhythm going. Sharp edges pair easily with soft colors as the drama of the cub's outing builds to the climax of falling stars that light up the sky, the sea, and the animals. In fact, "They light up everything the little bear loves." When the stars stop falling, she's ready to go back home to her mother's "soft, warm fur." A successful and satisfying combination of adventure and bedtime story.–Jane Marino, Bronxville Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* PreS-K. Joining Henkes' Kitten's First Full Moon [BKL F 1 04] and Mo Willems' pigeon duet is another graphically minimalist yet utterly effective picture book for the very young. "Snug inside her warm den, a polar bear cub wakes. Something in the moonlit stillness quietly beckons. What is it?" The tug of this gentle mystery will draw children into Thompson's simple bedtime story, and the hypnotic ebb and flow of her alliterative lines (on a night that's "keen and cold," little cub "sets out for the snow and sky and sea and ice") will keep children immersed as the young explorer encounters floating, dreaming sea creatures, and witnesses a meteor shower that further transforms the already exotic nighttime surroundings. As arresting as Thompson's language are Savage's powerful linocuts, which beautifully reference the textures and forms of Inuit stone carvings and evoke the arctic landscape in a few elemental colors per spread: glacial blues, grays, and sea greens; the pinks and lavenders of the aurora borealis. Like Henkes' kitten and Willems' pigeon, little cub harks back to an earlier, more technologically constrained era of bookmaking, when enduring classics were born of well-honed writing and thoughtful design rather than easy, glitzy effects. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"One of the ten best illustrated children's books of 2004". -- The New York Times

"The stylized simplicity of Savage's illustrations reflects both the solace of night and the fellowship of nature." -- The New York Times

Customer Reviews

A beautiful bedtime story for all ages.
This wonderful book follows a polar bear cub on a nighttime stroll through the Arctic. Steve Savage's geometric linocut illustrations perfectly mesh with the haiku-like story by Lauren Thompson. Savage's drawings are as flawless as a diamond and as gentle as a sunrise. Spend time with the art to appreciate the subtle pallettes of each 2-page spread, and the iconic simplicity of the figures in the landscape. The result is truly a book for all ages, and is worth of multiple reads.

charming new book
My little girl adores this book. She made me read it again and again and now she knows it by heart and "reads" it to herself. The illustrations are charming, simple but very evocative. They inspire my daughter (in a way more busily illustrated books don't) to draw. She draws lots of pictures of the polar bear cub off on new adventures and is now planning on writing "Polar Bear Night Two."

A beautiful book
My daughter (3 1/2) loves this book. It has quickly become a bedtime favorite -- and it has made her very interested in stars and the night sky. The text is sweet and sonorous and the art is luminous and warm. Perfect for calming down before sleep.