Hannah and her family visit a Christmas market in Dresden. Hannah sees a small bear puppet toy and the seller shows her how the bear can dance. Hannah finds this quite upsetting, but she convinces her father to buy her the little bear. In the middle of that night Hannah finds herself in a different place and time - a barn with two bears - one huge and one cub. She meets a young boy who is trying to rescue the cub. He has witnessed the hunters capturing the wild creature to use in their dreadful dancing act. Hannah is a stranger, but she is able to help Matthias. Even though the mother bear has been killed the new friends find another bear in the forest who immediately bonds with the little cub - giving readers the promise of that all-important happy ending.
This book was a generous gift from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything and it reminded me of an Australian picture book from many years ago.
Luna has a junior looking cover and only 176 pages with illustrations but the topic of cruelty to animals which is explored in this book and the timeslip format mean this book is better suited to readers aged 10+.
Holly Webb needs more than one shelf in a library - she says: "Quite often people ask how many books I’ve written. At the moment, it’s 156!"
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