ALA Booklist

The title page establishes the fantasy, as a girl lies in bed reading her picture-book Hush Little Polar Bear. With the girl observing nearby, the little white bear flies, rides, bounces, crawls, swims, and swings through a variety of landscapes ve, cow pasture, and mountaintop rphing at last into a stuffed bear on the girl's pillow. The pedestrian rhymed verse serves merely as a vehicle for the vibrant, cheerful art. After the bear's playful excursions, images of puffy white clouds, fuzzy bear fur, and downy warm blankets bring the gentle bedtime fantasy to a dozy close. Pair with Robie H. Harris' equally imaginative bedtime story, Maybe a Bear Ate It! (2008) before turning out the lights.

Horn Book

This playful adaptation of the "Hush Little Baby" lullaby stars a fuzzy cub whose dream-time escapades take him from the high seas to a mountain peak before he cuddles up with a sleepy little girl. Careful viewers will spot the girl throughout Mack's textured illustrations, which, with a final page turn, reveal that the cub is the little girl's stuffed animal.

Kirkus Reviews

A sweet metaliterary journey takes a girl and her stuffed polar bear on a fanciful trip through a variety of terrains before they return to her bedroom. The adventure begins on the title page, where readers see the wide-eyed little girl sitting in bed, holding the very book they are reading. The child addresses her bear directly in verse, each page turn revealing a bright, new, softly rounded landscape: "Swing through the trees from a dangling vine. / Forge through a desert where stars shimmer and shine." Careful readers will spot the little girl following the fuzzy white bear along, watching from behind trees and hills as the broadly smiling bear enjoys each moment. Mack's genial, soft-edged bear is the star attraction in this lulling tale; the verse abets each page turn but definitely takes second billing to the images. Children will find it a literal breath of fresh air as the peripatetic bear crawls in the window to curl up on the now-slumbering girl's pillow. In a world full of bedtime books, this one has a place. (Picture book. 2-5)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In his first solo outing, Mack (illustrator of the Bunnicula series) sends an eager-looking polar bear on a series of dreamtime adventures: “Swim through a waterfall./ Splash in a stream./ Paddle past rainbows/ that glisten and gleam.” Big, rounded shapes and pastel-tinted spreads encourage calm, while rhythmic verses describe action. The polar bear looks like a real cub; the ending reveals him (her) as a stuffed animal snuggled in the arms of the girl who, presumably, is the narrator. She’s right behind the polar bear in every spread, watching over him; in Mack’s cheerful, fuzzy acrylic paintings, they travel across the ocean, through a rain forest, a desert, and up into the sky before ending safely in bed. “Then look right beside you,/ and that’s where I’ll be,” she promises the bear. Giving the child character the speaking rather than the listening part neatly reverses lullaby convention. Ages 2–6. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Nov.)

School Library Journal

PreS Following the rhythm and rhyme of "Hush Little Baby," a young girl sings a lullaby to her toy bear: "Hush little polar bear./Sleep in the snow,/and dream of the places/where sleeping bears go." As the two of them drift off to sleep, they dream of sailing the high seas, chasing butterflies, bouncing through cow pastures, creeping through a cave, swinging from a vine, and so on until, soaring through the sky, they return home to cuddle in bed. The richly textured spreads are bright and imaginative, perfectly complementing the simple, lyrical text. Begging to be sung, this will be a natural choice for bedtime or teddy-bear-themed storyhours. Rachel Kamin, North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, Highland Park, IL