Blog Tour – If I had a Polar Bear

The latest addition to the wildly popular series of bedtime stories imagines what it would be like to have a polar bear for a pet.

What would it be like to have a polar bear as a pet? It might be an unconventional
choice, but it would be sure to give the best bear hugs…

Polar bears are cuddly but they’re also very strong. As marine mammals, they can swim for days at a time – that’s serious perseverance! So if Santa ever needed help delivering his presents, guess who he would call?

Join our funny female protagonist as she wonders ‘what would life be like… if I had a
polar bear?’
Blurb for If I Had A Polar Bear by Gabby Downay and Alex Barrow

Gabby Dawnay is a writer and poet. She is a regular contributor to OKIDO magazine
and a script-writer for children’s television.

Alex Barrow is a London-based illustrator, and the art director for and a regular
contributor to OKIDO magazine.

Alex and Gabby are the duo behind children’s picture books If I had a dinosaur, A House
for Mouse and A Song for Bear, all published by Thames & Hudson.

My stop on the tour takes the form of a book review.

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Title: If I had a Polar Bear

Written by: Gabby Dawnay

Illustrated by: Alex Barrow

Published by: Thames & Hudson

If I Had A Polar Bear by Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow is a heart-warming picture book about love and imagination. A young girl dreams of owning a polar bear and all the things they could do together. As well as being a lovely story it is full of interesting facts about polar bears.

I enjoyed the way the illustrations are part of the text. This worked perfectly on the pdf I was sent but not so well in the e-book as my e-reader did not format the pages properly. This meant the illustrations were all out of place so the text unfortunately did not make sense.

Written in rhyming couplets this book was easy to read aloud. The illustrations of the polar bear as a faint pencil outline gives the desired effect of the polar bear being imaginary. but also highlights how a polar bear’s fur is translucent not white. I particularly liked the addition of double-page spreads with no text. The pastel colours add to the magical feel of the story.

A highly entertaining read. A great book for reading at bedtime and for encouraging young children to use their imagination.

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To follow the rest of the tour please see the schedule below:

You can buy copies of If I Had A Polar Bear by Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org which supports local, independent bookshops.

I would like to thank Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in this blog tour. Thank you.

To read my other reviews of children’s books published by Thames and Hudson see: