Polar Bear

The team behind Honeybee and Giant Squid portrays beauty and suspense in the lives of a polar bear family struggling to adapt to a warming Arctic. In an early image, two cubs nestle by their mother’s great bulk. Following a month of waiting for the cubs’ birth and four months of nursing them, the mother bear—now in desperate need of food—leads them “along a trail that she took with her own mother... along a trail her cubs will take when they are grown.” When they arrive at the ice, though, she finds that it’s melting rapidly, forestalling the hunting— and the nourishment—that its presence allows. In a tense moment, she further finds herself stranded with her cubs on a broken floe: “What has happened to the Arctic spring world she has always known?” Yet through numerous trials—threats from wolves, unsuccessful hunting, and a marathon swim—the mother’s judgment and experience keep her cubs safe. Fleming’s lengthy verses persuasively portray the world through a polar bear’s senses, and Rohmann’s vivid close-ups of the bears are matched by spacious spreads that capture the distinctive light of the north. Back matter supplies an author’s note and further facts. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)