Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

 

Martin, B., & Carle, E. (1991). Polar bear, polar bear, what do you hear?. New York: H. Holt.

"Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" is a children's picture book that is very popular because it is good for small children as well as school age children. It has pictures and sounds that associate with the animal being talked about but is almost like a cute game of telephone where each of them say what they hear but at the end someone repeats it. It would be a great book for small children in preschool, kindergarten, or even first or second grade when talking about animals or zoos and maybe even a great book to read before a field trip. Bill Martin and Eric Carle team up here to show us there creativity like in "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" there are many colors and the pictures are very bold and abstract but very real looking. They are also very good at asking questions so it could be used for students to repeat noises or predict what the next animal could be. The best questions for this type of book would be questions about sounds or about the words in the book like "hissing" and "whistling" and use it for a time to show a literary element like onomatopoeia.