5 stars!
Can it get any cuter?

Little Ettie gets ready and lies in her bed, afraid of the dark. She tries to sleep only to see stardust entering the room. Curious, she explores the stardust and traces a bear by connecting the star dots. Viola! Magic! The bear comes alive to meet her.
This is a lovely book with barely any text. Only two pages have text, that too, no more than 8 words in total. The rest of the story is told in a series of illustrations. Some pages have multiple images arranged in neat boxes.
Kids can easily understand the context by looking at the illustrations. The expressions are clear and apt. Curiosity, delight, hesitation, fear, eagerness, anticipation, and many other emotions can be grasped just by looking at the pictures. The color scheme is beautiful in shades of greenish-blue, reddish-orange, and sparkling silver stardust.

To summarize, Moon Bear is a perfect bedtime story for kiddos and will give them a happy sleep filled with dreams of magic and furry friends!
Thank you, NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I found it very hard to rate children's books so everything is a 5 star read for me!!
I really loved this book, the illustrations are so beautiful and captivating that I found myself smiling through every page I read.
The story itself is very beaitiful and inspiring <3

The book concept is interesting: there's virtually no text (except for two lines), and the kid learns to use her wild imagination to get over her fear of the dark. The illustrations really convey a strong sense of magic and wonder. It's very beautiful to watch. And I understand the willingness to use only pictures to tell the story, but I would've loved to "hear" the conversations between the child and the bear. Well, it'll be up to the reader's imagination!

Every Christmas my boys and I watch "The Snowman" together. It's beautiful, heartfelt, and gives me a warm, cozy feeling inside. "Moon Bear" gave me those exact same feelings. "Moon Bear" is a word-light, illustration-heavy book full of warmth, magic, and whimsy. This book is sure to be a favorite for parents and children alike; I can already see my boys pouring over every page and every detail, begging for their own "Moon Bear". Clare Helen Welsh has created a lovely story perfect for any time of the day, but this is definitely going on my bedtime rotation.

This book is so beautifully illustrated and manages to tell such a lovely story without many words. We call our little one moonbear so I had to read this to her as soon as I saw it. She loved it and it’s definitely a book well buy when it comes out.

I cannot say how much I absolutely love this book! Moon Bear is an adorable, nearly wordless, picture book. The stories my students can make up with these illustrations are going to be so much fun. I love the twist at the end.

Cozy and rustic artwork. Depicts the joy of imaginative and appreciating the present moment. Facial expressions are expressive and enhances characters. Humorous and fun. Creative interactions. Powerful images with little to no words. Strong message of friendship and wonder. Overall, a very good read.

The illustrations in this book were absolutely adorable and I loved the whimsical, magical atmosphere that was created. The storyline was very sweet and the Moon Bear was extremely cute. I do wish that there had been slightly more words as I feel it would have helped the story along a bit however I think younger children or toddlers will enjoy just looking at the stunning pictures.

Overall this was a very cute book and I loved the premise of the girl being scared of the dark and the bear being scared of the light.

I loved this book! It has hardly any text at all, but it feels very special and magical. The drawings are very beautiful, magical and the story is very clear. It's super sweet and I highly recommend you read this (alone or with a child)!

Thank you NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books, and Clare Helen Welsh for the early access copy of Moon Bear.

Moon Bear is a beautifully illustrated wordless story of a child’s journey of overcoming a fear of darkness and learning to love her bedtime. Moon Bear starts with Ettie’s mother letting her know it is time for bed and goes through Ettie’s bedtime routine. When Ettie gets to bed, she appears to be afraid of the dark. When suddenly a beautiful ray of light appears from the window and gives Ettie the ability to spread light. When Ettie spreads the light across the stars an illuminated polar bear appears in her room and the fun between the two begins. When Ettie wakes, she is missing the joy she had throughout the night and cannot wait for the next nights adventure.

Moon Bear does a fantastic job of illustrating accents of light by using various forms of light sources. There are some illustrations with subtle light like the alarm clock in Ettie’s room, while other illustrations show larger sources of light like the flashlight, bedroom light, and moons glow.

This will be a lovely book that can be used as a tool for children to express their own interpretations.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an ARC.

This was a beautiful picture book, perfect for young children. It has the perfect illustration style, it had me smiling at every single picture.
"Moon Bear" does a wonderful job of depicting fear of the dark (that most children have at some point) while finding magic and comfort in the stars and moonlight.
I wish I had picture books, like this one, growing up.

While this children’s book has very few words, the illustrations are beautiful and allow for the growth of imagination and conversation!

This book feels like a teddy bear's hug.
It's perfect for an evening during a cold winter. The illustrations are incredibly soft (the colors, the designs), matching the story perfectly. They're also very well detailed in my opinion. I got immediately hit by a wave of tenderness looking at Ettie. I imagined reading this to my kids while cuddling under a big blanket. I do have to say I have a weak spot for stories about imaginary friends/animals/stars and this one totally met my expectations.
I think my favorite thing is the design of the little bear but honestly - everything is quite perfect. Thank you for allowing me to witness such a cute friendship.

Being afraid of the dark is a common bedtime worry for little ones, including Ettie. Every night, when it is time for bed, she feels overwhelmed by a cloak of darkness and shadows.

One night, a chink in her curtains allows the silver light of the moon to glimmer into her room and when she reaches out her hand, it is kissed by moon dust. Using this glittering magic, Ettie traces the star constellations in the sky and to her delight and surprise, Ursa Major comes to life as a gorgeous moon bear, right inside Ettie’s bedroom. Overjoyed, Ettie and her new friend dance around the room, play and build a den to sleep in. When Ettie puts on her torch, the moon bear shrinks away, seemingly afraid of the light. Between them, they find strength to face their fears and when Ettie finally falls asleep, the moon bear is by her side. When she rushes to bed the next evening, will he return?

Whether this almost wordless story is meant to be representative of Ettie’s imagination or just a beautiful bedtime story, we don’t know. Is the moon bear her imaginary friend, found by stargazing at Ursa Major and Ursa Minor each night instead of going to sleep? The lack of words mean that we are able to decide for ourselves or alter the narrative to suit the audience we read it to. Encouraging visual communication, it takes us on a journey from fear of the dark to embracing what it brings into visibility, the magical light of the moon and the beautiful constellations of stars. Richly illustrated, this whimsical premise is brought to life by artwork that flood the pages with light that bounces off the paper and somehow sparkles like the stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and FLC for sending this eBook for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

I adore these illustrations!!! I love the magic in the mostly text less book. I love how they are so open for interpretation, and leave room for imagination!!

I particularly love the playfulness of the beautiful bear illustrations of the bear in the stars, and the bears coming to life. Truly beautiful!!

Thank you!!

Except for a few lines, this is basically a wordless picture book.
I liked the story and the illustrations, particularly the bear, were very sweet.

Moon Bear is an enchanting sweet little book about friendship, and more importantly, selflessness. The book relies solely on illustrations, which are wonderful! So gentle, tasteful and I adored how light and playing with light is depicted. It reminded me of Lucy Fleming's Ella's Night Lights. The pictures are detailed and realistic enough to entice young children, yet artistic enough to foster the taste for art in the future.

The story is simple, as would be expected in a book for preschoolers, but the ending was surprising and moving.

The lack of text is the book's strongest suit. It allows children's creativity run free, which is fitting for a story of a little girl whose creativity brings light to life thanks to her sparkling fingers. The child can interpret and "read" the story their own way, unrestricted by the limits of a written text.

The book also has a strong educational potential and can be used to practice storytelling with preschoolers, expand their vocabulary or practice identifying the emotions and talking about dealing with them.

Would definitely recommend for 2+ children.

The illustrations in this book were absolutely stunning, with my personal favorites being the constellations and the lights/stars throughout the pages. The storyline is clear and easy to follow, which makes this great for a range of ages. My youngest children are ages 8 & 10, and it was still captivating without many words and not too young for them. This book allows the reader to create their own dialogue and their own guided story. Anyone that is looking for a unique children’s book with whimsy and beauty would love Moon Bear.

Feel free follow my social media accounts, I will be sharing my review of this book prior to the publishing date.
https://linktr.ee/britneybarlow

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

With gorgeous illustrations and a sweet story, Moon Bear is sure to help little ones fall asleep at night!

This book is one of the most effectively illustrated with the concept it is carrying. This is told via a little girl Ellie who is afraid of the dark and whenever her mother calls her for a bedtime she shrinked in her posture thinking how she bears that all over the night. But in one such night she thought to have a moonlite dots shaped like light bear. Here she got to know that, that light bear fears light.
This is a wordless book but says a lot about overcoming fears that we carry inside us. My parents, in my childhood make me overcome such fears by saying that if you are fearing from something maybe that too afraid of you, so don't ever be afraid but be strong to win that fear.