Review by Booklist Review
PreS. In a warm, cuddly fantasy, Hannah makes friends with Cold Paws, a lonely polar bear living in the land of snow and ice. No one wants to play with him, and he feels cold inside and out. From her village on the other side of the forest, Hannah hears him playing his flute, and she follows him and gives him her warm, wooly scarf. The next day she does jumping jacks with him, and, best of all, she brings him a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Then he has a friend. The soft-toned watercolor, ink, and pastel artwork, blue and white for the big, wintry landscape and bright colors for Hannah's gifts,\b express both the melancholy and the glow of friendship and kindness.\b Cold Paws could easily be a pet, a teddy bear, or a kid who wants to snuggle up. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Cold Paws is a warmhearted polar bear so huge he scares away all potential animal friends. Just when it seems that he's doomed to always feel "cold inside," with only his silver flute for company ("he played [it] each day to forget his troubles"), a girl named Hannah appears, lured by the bear's music. After several visits, Hannah warms to the fellow and his hulking vulnerability; she pledges "to play with [him] every day." The story's wrap-up proclaims, "Now that he had a friend, Cold Paws didn't feel cold anymore." While the narrative retains a rather wooden literalness, the watercolor, ink and pastel pictures are quite another matter. With subtle striations of grays, blues and whites, British author/artist Floyd immerses readers in the daunting chill of the polar landscape; in one remarkable scene, Cold Paws, while playing his flute, seems enveloped by the night sky, a canopy of billowing, foreboding slate blue shot through with the shimmering green of an aurora borealis. Floyd's characterization of her gigantic ursine hero is every bit as striking as her depiction of his environment: Cold Paws is sweetly sad but never pitiful, and endearing from the first page. Children will immediately sense that while Cold Paws is very much at home in his enormous body, Hannah's chipper, stylishly Nordic presence is the very connection he seeks. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Cold Paws, a polar bear, is cold and lonely; his chilly condition comes from inside and not from his surroundings. Attempts to play with other animals haven't worked because they're all intimidated by his large size. So, he plays his silver flute in an attempt to forget his problems. One day, a girl from the nearby village follows his music and discovers the reclusive animal. Assuming he is cold, Hannah gives him her long striped scarf and begins to build a friendship that ultimately warms Cold Paws up on the inside. While this gentle, fanciful story doesn't offer anything new, the watercolor, ink, and pastel illustrations, done predominantly in the blues, whites, and grays of the Far North, are noteworthy. An additional purchase.-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A goopy sentimental tale, ostensibly about friendship, but mostly just strange. Cold Paws is a polar bear who is cold and lonely. Polar bear? Cold? Hmmm. He plays a flute to keep himself company, and the sound of the flute draws a little girl named Hannah to him. She gives him her scarf and later brings him hot chocolate and a hug. "Now that he had a friend, Cold Paws didn't feel cold anymore." Hannah wears vaguely Scandinavian garb but this clearly takes place in some otherwhere of talking bears and children who wander alone through forests, plains and icebergs. It's pretty clunky, but the watercolor, ink and pastel pictures fill the pages attractively, and some might find it hard to resist a bear in a red-and-yellow scarf. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
