Can Bears Ski?

Raymond Antrobus is a deaf poet and teacher. He has won the Ted Hughes Award and became the first poet to be awarded the Rathbones Folio Prize. About Can Bears Ski, his first picture book, he says, "It's the book I could see myself reaching for as a child, and I can't wait to have it exist in the world.” Originally from London, Raymond Antrobus now lives in Oklahoma City.

Polly Dunbar is a partially deaf author-illustrator who has created several books for young children. Her works include Penguin, Hello Tilly, Pretty Pru, Good Night, Tiptoe, and A Lion Is a Lion. She is also the illustrator of Pat-a-Cake Baby and Here’s a Little Poem, among other titles. She lives in England.

As with many picture books addressing specific issues, the main audience for this book will be children with a similar experience, who will surely delight in seeing the little bear wearing their hearing aids and learning to navigate the world. However, all young readers will enjoy figuring out just what “Can bears ski?” is supposed to mean and will benefit from learning about being hard of hearing, including how to talk to a hard-of-hearing person. Gently and thoughtfully teaches about being a hard-of-hearing kid.
—Kirkus Reviews

The book realistically avoids a magic wand approach and acknowledges the cognitive strain of working to hear people (and the normal kid strain of having to keep track of small, easy-to-misplace devices). Dunbar’s digital art recalls the work of Laura Vaccaro Seeger in its sturdy coziness, and the love between Dad and child is evident in every shared scene. This would be a useful partner to those books about kids learning they need glasses, and it would also help ease the way of youngsters going the hearing aid route.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

#OwnVoices creators Antrobus and Dunbar have lovingly crafted a picture book that addresses not just the often-frustrating process of diagnosing a disability but the exhaustion that accompanies living with one. Dunbar's strong-lined and loudly colored art easily translates Little Bear's emotional journey for a young audience, making this an excellent mirrors-and-windows pick, especially for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and likely won't have seen themselves portrayed so clearly before.
—Booklist Online

Bear's home is loud—full of Dad Bear's rumbling, shaking, and trembling—and Bear enjoys the commotion. Perplexingly, though, Dad and everyone else seems to keep asking him, "Can bears ski?" Bear brushes it off—until one day Dad Bear takes our young narrator to meet an "au-di-ol-o-gist." What follows is a thoughtful sequence that illustrates what a visit to an audiologist might look like. . . . Warm tones softly illuminate the story, punctuated by bold primary colors, in this compassionately told book.
—The Horn Book