25 March 2021 A POLAR BEAR IN THE SNOW by Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris, ill., Candlewick, October 2020, 40p., ISBN: 978-1-5362-0396-7
“Polar bears will be wiped out by the end of the century unless more is done to tackle climate change.”
-- bbc.com (7/20/20)
“Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me”
-- Three Dog Night (1971)
“There is a polar bear in the snow.
Where is he going?”
A POLAR BEAR IN THE SNOW is a blizzard of joy! The beginning is a real grabber. We are told that there is a polar bear in the snow, but we cannot see him. All we see is white. Then, with a page turn, we see his black nose and muzzle. Another turn and he really begins to come into focus.
Spare text accompanied by cut-paper-and-ink collages depict this polar bear cruising across the tundra, summiting mountains, and arriving at the water’s edge. After studying his reflection in the water, he dives in and cavorts.
“And when he is done playing,
and he climbs back onto the snow,
where will he go then?”
For three-year-olds, this will be a book of wonder. For the fours and fives, the opportunities to guess where the bear is going next will give them a chance to seriously hypothesize (or an occasion to come up with the goofiest answers possible). The cavorting will readily serve as inspiration for gross motor music and movement activities.
I can imagine kids then sitting down and having a lot of fun creating their own snowy collages.
The interdependence of life on Earth necessitates our caring about the fate of the 30,000 polar bears left on the planet. A POLAR BEAR IN THE SNOW is a joyful tale that could well endear these intelligent and threatened creatures to the youngest generation.
Richie Partington, MLIS
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