LITTLE POLAR BEAR TAKES A STAND

Little polar bear Lars is back—and this time, he needs to stop humans from depleting his fishing grounds.

There is nothing subtle about the intention of this book, which is to plant in the youngest generation the seeds of activism around climate change by introducing one specific example of its importance. The beauty of it is how seemingly effortlessly the artwork—sweet-faced, line-drawn animals against backgrounds of freezing land and water and pastel skies—and the simple, often humorous text together deliver a plot about animals using ingenuity and cooperation to chase humans from their favorite fishing haunt. On the first page, Lars’ father grumbles about annually warmer springtimes, and his mother adds that, in addition to melting ice, increasing numbers of human visitors are threatening the “fishing bay.” The next day, Lars disobeys his parents’ rules about exploring alone and sets out to find the fishing bay. When he finds himself competing for food with Isa the bird and Robbie the seal, the animals soon realize the fault lies with too many ships rumbling through. The sweet, whimsical appearances of the animals belie their amazing abilities to figure out how to demolish a barbed-wire–protected radio station and sink a large, metal buoy. The text pointedly celebrates the property destruction as an appropriate action.

Scientific facts blend seamlessly with the fantasy of literal animal activists.