ALL THE ICE CREAM IN THE WORLD

When a little polar bear’s ice floe melts, he must find his way home.

A warming ecosystem causes the bear’s ice floe to break off and float away while he naps. When he wakes, he is all alone in the vast sea. His floe is getting smaller and smaller. Luckily, he lands in what he knows to be “the human place.” Big ships crowd the harbor, and everyone bustles to and fro. No one notices the tiny cub. He plods along, bewildered, on a teeming street, blending into the swarm. But then, a small, tan-skinned human sees him. She’s eating an ice cream cone and offers him some. This cold treat is delicious! Instinctively, the tot knows the cub needs help getting home. More and more kids come, each bringing ice cream—all the ice cream in the world, in fact! They pile it together, creating a tasty iceberg so the bear can float back to his mother. This Dutch import is a gentle introduction to global warming. A vague note in the beginning offers some context (“It will take more than all the ice cream in the world to keep the icebergs from melting”), though readers are mostly left on their own to fill in the gaps. But a glimmer of optimism shines as children are reminded that they can unite to change the world. The youngsters are racially diverse.

A warmhearted look at a chilling topic.