Can Bears Ski?

The debut children's book from Ted Hughes award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus that tracks a father-and-son journey into the discovery and management of deafness.

This new paperback edition includes an illustrated BSL alphabet.

Boy Bear cannot hear Dad Bear coming to wake him up in the morning but he can feel the floor vibrate with his heavy footsteps. He can only grasp little bits of what his teacher says to him at school. He cannot catch what his friends are laughing at. And, all the time, Boy Bear keeps hearing the question, “Can Bears ski?” What does it mean? With the support of Dad Bear, Boy Bear visits an audiologist and, eventually, he gets hearing aids. Suddenly, he understands the question everyone has been asking him: "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

Raymond Antrobus, the award-winning poet of The Perseverance, draws on his own experience to show how isolating it can be for a deaf child in a hearing world. But through his lyrical and moving words, matched with Polly's stunning imagery, he also shows how many ways there are to communicate love. With a solid network, Boy Bear will find his place in the world.

This multi-layered, skilfully woven story provides a brilliant insight into how children make sense of their experience when they don’t have the words to describe it. The Scotsman
The detail of how Little Bear can feel the vibration of Dad’s feet on the floor rather than hear his voice in the morning, and how he can feel the crunch of the snow under his feet when he walks to school, as well as the experience of visiting an audiologist, bring an authenticity to the depiction of being deaf or hard of hearing in childhood alongside a lovely story told in a relatable child voice. BookTrust
This is a powerful and beautifully created book. Able
The story is direct and straight-forward without ignoring either the best times or the challenging times for those who are lip reading and/or have hearing loss. Colourful full-page illustrations will capture the attention of both children and their families. This is a book which should certainly have a place in every primary school for children, teachers, parents and staff. The School Librarian
Drawing on Antrobus’ childhood experience with undiagnosed deafness, this new paperback edition comes with a BSL alphabet, as well as Dunbar’s cuddly illustrations. Guardian

Raymond Antrobus became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre, and in January 2021 he was awarded an MBE for his services to literature in 2021.His adult poetry collection The Perseverence was published to great acclaim, earning him the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and the Ted Hughes Award and was a Sunday Times & The Guardian Poetry Book of the Year Awards. His latest poetry collection, All the Names Given, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Can Bears Ski? is his first picture book. Find him online at raymondantrobus.com, on Instagram as @raymond_antrobus and Twitter as @RaymondAntrobus

Polly Dunbar is the author-illustrator of Red, Red, Red, A Lion Is a Lion, Arthur’s Dreamboat and the bestselling picture book Penguin, winner of numerous awards including the Book Trust Early Years Award and the Red House Children's Book of the Year. She is also the illustrator of My Dad’s a Birdman, written by David Almond, and Shoe Baby and Pat-a-Cake Baby, both written by her mother, Joyce Dunbar. Her collection of titles beginning with Hello Tilly was made into an animations series, Tilly and Friends, as seen on Cbeebies. She is the co-founder of Long Nose Puppets, a children’s theatre company. Polly lives in Beccles, Suffolk. Find her online at pollydunbar.com and on Twitter and Instagram as @PollyDunbar.

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