The Last Polar Bear (Laura Geringer Books)
Kindergarten-Grade 2—George attempts to bring home the plight of the polar bear due to global warming and climate change. The text is simple, with only two or three sentences per page. Tigluk sees a polar bear approaching from his window, and he goes out to meet it. He comes face to face with the animal, who seems to be asking him to follow it. The child and his grandmother repair the sealskin kayak that has been damaged by floating garbage and head off to find the bear. Instead they find a cub nestled on one of the few remaining ice floes. They name him Pilluk, which means "to survive," and return with him to their village. "Our town will feed Pilluk, the last of the polar bears, and show him how to live in a warming world." There is a problem here in terms of the unlikeliness of this scenario—there are no details as to how the people are going to approach teaching the cub. Minor's exquisite watercolors are riveting, however, and capture the beauty (and chill) of the frozen landscape with panache, and children will be drawn to the book by the endearing picture of the cub on the cover. The story can perhaps serve as a vehicle for introducing the subject of global warming, but, in and of itself, it raises more questions than it answers.—Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.