Home › Find a book › The Last Bear
The Last Bear
by Hannah Gold
April spends a summer on an Arctic island where her father studies the weather, and finds a starving polar bear that is not supposed to be there.
A story about children and animals, moving and warm in tone. We would put it with children of 8–11, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.
Nothing flagged
We have not flagged any content in this one that a parent would usually want warning about.
Our take on this book
April travels with her scientist father to a remote Arctic island where he is to spend six months alone at a weather station — and there, on an island where there are supposed to be no bears left, she finds one: thin, stranded, and cut off by the melting ice from the rest of his kind. Hannah Gold's award-winning debut is a tender, beautifully told story of the friendship between a lonely girl and a wild bear, with a gentle but heartfelt message about climate change and the natural world. It is moving and hopeful, with mild peril and real emotion but nothing frightening, and Levi Pinfold's illustrations are gorgeous. For a nine- to twelve-year-old, especially an animal-lover or a child who cares about the planet, it is a wonderful read — warm, exciting and quietly powerful — and one of the most beloved recent children's novels, the kind of book that turns a young reader into a passionate defender of the wild.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
Because of Winn-DixieKate DiCamillo
The Water HorseDick King-Smith
PaxSara Pennypacker
Running WildMichael Morpurgo
The Amazing Story of Adolphus TipsMichael Morpurgo
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.