Dear Polar Bears - Gabrielle S. Prendergast

AUTHOR: Gabrielle S. Prendergast

ILLUSTRATOR: Marcus Cutler

GENRE: Children's Picture Book, Animals.

RATING: 3.5 stars.

An imaginative book about an imaginary interaction between penguins and polar bears.

Polar bears are denizens of the Arctic. They aren’t found beyond their native regions. Penguins have multiple species, but a majority live in the Antarctic. As such, in real life, polar bears and penguins wouldn’t ever meet in their natural habitats. This creative story makes the two species interact.

The penguins from the South Pole are planning to have a grand party on December 21st, the day of their Summer Solstice, which will provide an extra-long ‘day’ day for their fun. They write to the North Pole to invite the polar bears to join them. Thus this entire picture book is in the form of an epistle written by the penguins to the polar bears. As the epistle details their plans for the party, the illustrations show how the polar bears pack and set off for their looonnngggg journey and finally reach the South Pole.

At its heart, this is a simple story of friendship between species. But it manages to include quite a few interesting tidbits related to the two creatures and the environment they live in. The words in the main story are minimal and simple to understand. There is a hint at the impact of climate change on the polar regions. At the end, there is a brief informative note about the summer solstice in the Antarctic, the polar regions, and the two animal species.

The target age for the book is 6-8 year old children. Most of the content is easy for them to understand. The book is more geared towards encouraging discussions and learning, so it will be a decent add-on to classroom libraries. At the same time, I think there could have more to the story as it aims at somewhat older children. It touches upon points but doesn’t explore them.

The illustrations left me with somewhat mixed feelings. While I liked the manner in which the bears’ journey from the North Pole to the South Pole was depicted, the animals themselves don’t come off as appealing. The polar bears appear scary on a couple of pages. I am not sure why Antarctica was portrayed in brown shades – was it to show the impact of global warming? Also, on the very last page, one of the polar bears is shown as having swallowed half a penguin (no blood depicted.) If this was supposed to be funny, I think it missed the mark.

All in all, the informative part of this book was more memorable than the story part. It was a story with great potential, but it could have worked better. In its current format, it is above average.

My thanks to Orca Book Publishers and NetGalley for the DRC of “Dear Polar Bears”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.