From Publishers Weekly
The star of Gliori's (Flora's Blanket, reviewed April 9) latest bedtime tale is a small caramel-colored bear who lives in a refrigerator on a handsomely manicured lawn. One sleepless night, "too hot to sleep," the cub joins up with friends of every species at the top of a hill, "a place where the wide-awake meet." There, it's possible to hitch a ride on an owl or bee, and fly through a lavender sky to see the world from a great height ("Over oceans and mountains,/ across rivers and streams.../ the Polar Bolero makes/ you dance in your dreams") until, of course, drowsiness takes over. Then it's time to drop onto a cloud and float back home "to where someone cares." The central conceit of the "Polar Bolero" doesn't quite work: children will more likely identify the main action as flying rather than dancing, and Gliori's whimsical use of a bird's-eye perspective on the world underscores that notion. But her full-bleed spreads evoke a genial dreamland. By book's end, she has enveloped readers in much the same way that the bedcovers snuggle the sleepy protagonist. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 1-When it becomes too hot to sleep, a baby polar bear ventures out to the "summer grasses at the edge of the lawn." This is "where the wide-awake meet" and dance the Polar Bolero until they become tired and return home and are gently tucked into bed. Oddly, the animal's home is depicted as a realistic-looking vintage refrigerator, which is not an appropriate home for any living being. It is not clear why it is too hot in the refrigerator, or why the story is not set in a polar region as the title might imply, and the baby and parent look more like teddy bears than polar bears. At times, the illustrations and text do not match. For example, the text states, "you DANCE in your dreams," but depicts animals that are neither dancing nor sleeping. Instead, they are hanging on to winged creatures and riding in a hot-air balloon. The cheerful, bright, and large watercolor illustrations might envelop adult and child as they share this bedtime story with words that arch and wave across the page, but there are plenty of better-executed, fanciful, and playful stories that will lull youngsters to sleep.
Helen Foster James, University of California at San Diego
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
