A beautiful story of the power one girls love and bravery has to make the world a better place. Heartfelt and raw, April and Bear's story covers themes of loss, bravery, courage, climate change and learning to find your voice. Even the smallest of us can make a difference and sometimes a Bear roar is the best way to be heard.

Necessary, powerful and full of love.

This is a story for all ages. I would love to see it on school curricula and also as essential reading for businesses. Maybe, just maybe April’s message, her fervent hope, will become real: “...imagine if every single person on the planet just did one thing.”

Yet this is about so much more than global warming. It is also about loss - the loss of a wife and mother, the loss of habitat, the loss of kin. And loss has such a deep impact that can be so difficult to express. Hannah Gold describes this beautifully. In particular she gives the polar bear personality, emotions, expression without it ever becoming cheesy or twee. As she writes “Bear’s emotions were as real as any human’s; scudding and naked and raw...Everything about him radiated the kind of wretchedness you would find in an empty, forlorn, forgotten graveyard...”

And it is also a story of hope, courage, adventure, and love which will resonate with children around the world and hopefully will melt a few hearts amongst the adults too. It is pure gold.

When April learns that she is to spend six months on an uninhabited island in the Arctic with her father, she looks forward to them spending more time together, a consolation after the loss of her mother. But her father is engrossed in his scientific research project so April is left alone to explore the island for amusement.

It's a barren landscape and, though this is Bear Island, April has been told that the polar bears have long disappeared due to the effects of climate change. Yet one night she sees a weak, bedraggled and injured polar bear. She wins its trust and together they forge a very special relationship as April realises that she must find a way for the polar bear to reach a more suitable environment.

It's a wonderful, beautiful, touching and powerful story.

April is a strong, courageous and compassionate character and the storyline, and her relationship with the polar bear, is believable while also being quite magical.

As the story keeps within the bounds of realism, and avoids sentimentalism, the message about our individual responsibility towards caring for the planet and its creatures has a strong impact.

I couldn't stop reading and was in floods of tears at the end! A fantastic book!

April and her single-parent father accept a six month posting to remote Bear Island in Northern Norway within the Arctic Circle. He is a research scientist whose speciality is meteorology and the Norwegian Government have been carrying out investigations into the shrinking ice sheets around their northern coastline. Her father tells her that they will have quality time together and terrific adventures on the island of constant summer sunshine for six months, 24/7. It will seem like they are polar explorers and April is really excited about their trip to Bear Island. Her Dad had never been the same since his wife had died and she never sees him smiling anymore. This will be a time for bringing them together and life will once again be sweet and happy.
But when they get to the research outpost on Bear Island she finds that she has loads of free time after doing her school work. Her Dad is engrossed in his work of data collection and his promise of more time together is not going to happen. She is devastated when he tells her there are no Polar Bears left on the island because of global warming and the retreating ice shelf. Disappointed that Bear Island has no Polar Bears any more, April sets off to explore the island piece by piece, every day travelling in a different direction.
Soon she hears a tremendous roaring sound and when she locates where the sound is coming from she has no doubt at all that there is at least one Polar Bear on the Island that used to be their home. She has seen it for herself. She is beyond excited and is determined to succeed in her quest to get closer to the magnificent creature she knew lived on the same island as her.
Indeed she does track down a male Polar Bear, but is dismayed to see that he is starving, injured and unable to hunt so he is hungry, depressed and lonely. His coat is dull, his eyes sad and he certainly doesn’t look well. Looking for support and help from her Dad is in vain because he categorically tells her he doesn’t believe her. He tells her that it is impossible. End of the conversation. She is devastated.
This beautifully written and engaging debut novel tells the endearing story of a preteen’s desperation to save a lone male Polar Bear stranded on an isolated island. She first has to court his trust, befriend Bear and work out a way to reunite him with the Polar Bear fraternity in Svalbard. It proves to be a mammoth task. Can such a small girl even do it alone?
‘The Last Bear’ by Hannah Gold has been endorsed by award-winning children’s author Michael Morpurgo who says, “This is an important first novel, important for us, for polar bears and for the planet. It is deeply moving, beautifully told, quite unforgettable.” That was enough to entice me to read the novel recommended suitable for children aged over eight. I loved the characters, the storyboard and the subject matter, which is as current an issue as you can get. I thought the relationship between April and Bear was charming and spellbinding. I know the story is improbable, but to me this is Children’s Fiction at its best: hugely enjoyable, relevant to our lives and championing issues that really need to be spotlighted.
I received this book through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher HarperCollins Children’s Books in return for an honest review. Thank you so much for my copy. These are my own thoughts and I have read no other reviews before writing my own. I would recommend this novel as an excellent debut novel for both younger children over the age of eight and adults as well. It raises awareness of critical issues that are ruining our planet and causing the loss of animals that will become extinct unless we protect their habitats and get moving on becoming greener. I love the majesty of Polar Bears and want my legacy to those whom come after me to be able to witness animal species, birds, fish and all living creatures just the way I have from my girlhood to my senior years. 4.5*

This was a beautiful read. April leaves behind her life to move to Bear Island for her dad’s job. As the family struggle to deal with loss within the family, April strikes up an unusual friendship with Bear and it is this friendship that changes her life over the course of the 6 months living there.
I loved this gentle story, which placed relationships and the environment at its core. The subject of loss was so relevant and really resonated with me. April is a strong protagonist who is determined to save the environment.
As a teacher, I would be keen to use this book for our school topics around habitats and climate change. I can see why this book has been called an instant classic!

Beautifully written debut. I love books that teach the reader things and The Last Bear does just that but most importantly the writing completely absorbs you in the characters world. The relationship between April and Bear is both deeply beautiful and profound. The Last Bear is a story of hope, unlikely friendship and spirit. It will certainly feature as a read aloud text in my own classroom and provide the backdrop for some poignant and deep discussion points. Whilst the story covers the unmistakably obvious point of climate change there is so much more to the story than this and it will certainly, in my humble opinion, be worthy of becoming a classic of our time.
An undeniably poignant and worthy 5 out of 5 bears 🐾
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishing for the eARC.

The Last Bear is a heart-warming story about a young girl, April, who travels to Bear Island with her father for his work. She thinks that while they are there they will grow closer, but things don’t go the way she had planned.
There hasn’t been any bears on Bear Island for a long time, or so everyone says. So when April finds a polar bear, it changes everything. He needs saving, and maybe she does too.

A lovely story which touches on climate change, loneliness and grief. There is adventure, surprises and a truly amazing friendship. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story.

Bear Island is a lonely but stunning place in the Arctic however April thought that it would help bring her distant father closer to her but his research keeps getting in the way. Due to climate change, polar bears haven’t been seen on the island for years so when April stumbles across a malnourished bear she is determined to protect him. The bond between these two unlikely friends is something special, they both need saving but just not in the same way.

This is a powerful story that handles important subjects in a moving way. I warmed to April and her kindness to Bear immediately. It proves that we can all make a change, we can make a difference, and we should all aim to be better not just for our nearest & dearest but for the rest of the planet. I absolutely loved this book.

As the proof didn’t have any artwork, I’m intrigued to read a finished print copy to see what Levi Pinfold has produced to accompany Gold’s charming story as the jacket is lovely.

The Last Bear is truly something special. It is a story about living from your heart and recognising your place in the world. It is a story of learning to communicate and sharing your soul with others. It is a story of strength, compassion and responsibility. Most of all, it is a story of love.

Following the loss of her mum, it’s just eleven-year-old April and her dad, an environmental scientist who specialises in climate change. Focussed on his work and heart-broken over the death of the love of his life, he is often distant and out of touch with what April needs. One day, they are given the opportunity to live inside the Arctic Circle on an isolated island. Even though she has been told there are no polar bears left on Bear Island because the surrounding ice caps have melted, April is sure she sees one and the adventure of a lifetime begins.

The Last Bear is overflowing with raw emotion and the desire to be heard. April longs to find a voice for herself but also for her precious earth which is being destroyed. Bear becomes a beautiful symbol of the condition of the natural world. His roars of anger, sad contemplation, longing, and a joyful heart, full of love speak for a planet in need. The messages of conservation, connections, relationships and change are so clear and sure to inspire every reader.

I can’t wait to share this beautiful book with my own children and the children I teach. It is one of the best, most important books I have read this year and a powerful story that will stay with me for a very long time.

Thank you to Hannah Gold and Harper Collins Children’s for this incredible book!