Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear? is a classic picture book that will delight young children. It has a simple repetitive text that makes it easy for young readers to join in. Eric Carle beautifully illustrates this book, with bold and colourful pictures of animals.

The book follows a similar format to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? The reader is introduced to a new animal on each double-page spread. This is an excellent book for developing children's prediction skills as they will really enjoy predicting which animal will be heard next. This book would also be good for introducing the use of question marks, as each double page includes a question and an answer. Interesting vocabulary is used to describe the noises made by the animals which will challenge a young reader eg: "braying, trumpeting, snarling" etc.

This book is an absolute must for children aged 3-5, but will be enjoyed by children aged 0-7. If your child enjoyed Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? they are sure to enjoy this book just as much. --Amanda York

View other editions of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?.
View books by Bill Martin.

A great book for toddlers - Rated
We got the board book version of this book out of the library for our nearly two year old, and she loves it! The illustrations are fun and colourful, and the story is simple with easy rhymes and repetition. A perfect book to read aloud at the end of the day.

Your kids will love it - you might end up hating it! - Rated
Apparently this book is good for the older child, but our sons are 24 months and 11 months and they both adore it. Reliably, this is the one they will pick up time and time again, and bring it to their long-suffering parents who will then through gritted teeth agree to read it out, making all the appropriate noises (how do you bellow like a walrus or flute like a flamingo, anyway?) until hoarse. The repetition is what it's all about, really. The illustrations are fine though stylised. I do wish that the "boa constrictor" was a generic "snake" as I suspect my children will now grow up thinking all snakes are boa constrictors.

I have given this book 5 stars because that is what it would get from the children. I have to admit that unlike the Dr Seuss books, which I never tire of reading again and again, I do get heartily sick of the sight of this one. Having said that, it is not full of all-white or all-male characters (by which I mean animals which are 'he') in the manner of so many children's books.

Your children will love it. You have been warned...

This is a favorite in my home childcare! - Rated
We sing the lines to this wonderful book. We make the sounds of the animals, and although we have read the book so many times the pages are worn, the kids do not mind. I have just as much fun as they do reading this wonderful book that teaches colors, names of animals, and more!