Snow Bear

In a charming tale of love and friendship, Snow Bear trudges through a huge expanse of snow, unable to find refuge. Each warm, dry nest he finds is already occupied by snug creatures, and there is no room for a poor lonely bear. But lo, what is that cosy cottage in the distance!

Here’s a chance for a solitary human child to save the bear from his struggles. And it is a child who needs the bear just as much as he needs her. Shown in reassuringly homely interiors the bear is welcomed into the warm. Told with freshness and vivacity by the ever clever Tony Mitton, the rhyming never feels forced, remaining easy for the child to understand. Finding new ways to make familiar rhyming words sound new within a much covered context is much harder than you might think, but Mitton does it every time: “The girl gets a book and she reads him a story,/till both of them start feeling sleepy and snorey.”

The pictures are a delight. Vast swathes of snowy mountains made by creamy brushstrokes, conjure up a lush world full of rich colour. And the winsome little creature with stick-like legs, may be a bear but he is never threatening, especially when dwarfed by the huge snowy masses around him. A treat.