Polar Star

K-Gr 3-A loving depiction of a polar bear mother and her cubs. After giving birth in the safety of her den, Polar Star and her offspring search for food in their cold, white, and often dangerous environment. Grindley interweaves facts smoothly into this beautiful picture book; her choice of descriptive and action-oriented vocabulary will capture young audiences. A seal killed for food and a violent encounter with a hungry male polar bear are both treated matter-of-factly. A list of "Polar Bear Facts" will help to answer questions. Butler has captured the colors of the arctic perfectly. The double-page paintings are large and simple, with just enough detail. Readers can see Polar Star's joy as she shakes icy water from her fur. Occasionally, the muzzles on the bears are not quite accurate, needing to be narrower and more elongated, but this is a minor flaw. Debbie S. Miller's A Polar Bear Journey (Little, Brown, 1997) is written with more detail for an older audience and Jonathan London's Honey Paw and Lightfoot (Chronicle, 1998) describes a grizzly bear and her cub. A visually beautiful and factually accurate look at a majestic animal.-Mollie Bynum, formerly at Chester Valley Elementary School, Anchorage, AK (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This is an appealing mix of natural history and fictive invention about a polar bear mother who gives birth to two cubs in an ice cave. She nourishes the babies in this tiny space and then takes her young family on a perilous journey in search of food. The illustrations are striking and evoke the frozen world of the far north. From HORN BOOK Spring 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.