Where Does a Polar Bear Live? (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2 Series)

Let's-Read-and-Find-Out about Polar Bears

The Arctic might be a bit too chilly for you or me to live there, but it is the perfect home for polar bears. The fur between the pads of their paws keeps them from slipping on the ice. Their skin and blubber are like a warm blanket. But the earth is getting warmer and the ice is melting. Where will the polar bears live? How can we help protect their home? Read and find out!

Children's Literature

Part of the "Let's Read and Find Out Science" series, this volume on polar bears is an appealing and informative book for beginning readers. It opens with a mother bear's nose sticking out of her winter den, and she is soon followed out onto the snowy ground by her new cub, exploring his world for the first time. Brief information is given about the cub's growth and the hibernation cycle of the polar bear. The mother and cub then go hunting for seals, while the text explains the food chain of the Arctic Circle. A few pages are dedicated to the bears' shrinking habitat. The cub is then described as an adult of such size that "his head would brush the ceiling of your living room," and the author speculates as to whether he may be the last polar bear if the ice continues to shrink. At the end, readers are provided with a page encouraging them to find out more about global climate change and what they can do to make a difference. Short sentences with good context clues produce a highly readable text. Watercolor illustrations in frosty shades are an excellent accompaniment to the text. The wildly cute cub (who displays his antics on the end papers) and our "narrator," a white-coated bespectacled polar bear, are particularly appealing. This is an excellent addition for all children's libraries. Reviewer: Sharon Oliver

Sarah L. Thomson is the author of Stars and Stripes: The Story of the American Flag, a Nebraska Golden Sower Award finalist; all the Wildlife Conservation Society I Can Read Books, including Amazing Tigers!, winner of an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award; and What Lincoln Said, written with "admirable simplicity" (ALA Booklist). Sarah lives in Portland, Maine.