Book Review of Mother Star Bear Moon
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The Children’s Book Review
Mother Star Bear Moon
Written and illustrated by Holly Valero
Ages: 4-6 | 52 Pages
Publisher: Boilerplate Books, LLC (2026) | ISBN: 979-8-9946503-4-9
What to Expect: Grief, loss, caring, woodland habitat, helping others, self-discovery.
This tender picture book tackles a heavy topic—the death of a parent—with unusual gentleness, depicting loss as something that is shared rather than carried alone.
One day, a mother bear goes out to search for food—but a winter blizzard means she never returns to the cub waiting in the den for her. As the seasons turn, a keen-eyed squirrel and a pair of watchful birds become worried about the cub. Since she won’t leave the den on her own, they build her a companion out of milkweed fluff, acorn caps, and dried grass: a small bear of her own. Cautiously, the cub sets out with her new bear companion to search—through deep forest, across grasslands, and all the way to the sea—but her mother is nowhere to be found. That’s when the moon herself steps in, gently revealing to the cub that, although her mother is gone, she was never truly alone. The cub’s journey helps her find not her missing mother, but her own true self and the community she was always part of.
Author-illustrator Holly Valero transforms the cub’s helplessness to active searching and finally to understanding and acceptance, giving the abstract emotion of grief concrete shape, while the woodland animals’ resourcefulness and care serve as a shared community response to suffering. The language of the text is mostly simple and unadorned, letting the events of the story speak for themselves. The hand-drawn illustrations, featuring bold black ink outlines and soft, textured color, do a lot of the narrative work, with angles and perspective used to help the reader feel immersed in the cub’s world and emotion.
Mother Star Bear Moon is perfect for young readers navigating grief, or anyone who has ever wondered whether they are truly alone. Parents should know the book names the mother’s death outright, rather than softening it, a strength for families ready to talk about loss directly.
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About the Author
Born in Miami, Florida, in the early 1960’s, Holly Valero grew up on a sheep farm in rural Pennsylvania. A lifelong writer, artist, and social justice advocate. Holly writes and illustrates books about animals, including the Mouse and Elephant Books series (ages 1-6) and 2025’s Wander (ages 9 and up). Her books address themes of nature, friendship, and self-discovery. Valero lives in Southern Maine with her partner, Janet McKenney.
For more information, visit hollyvalero.com.
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