THE POLAR BEAR DAY

A young child and a polar bear spend a splendid day together.

Seemingly home alone, a youngster draws, reads, and plays with a toy train until an interrupting “KNOCK KNOCK” sends the child to grab a chair to check the door’s peephole. An ursine visitor enters, ready for all sorts of playful possibilities. They raid the fridge and the bear takes a bath before the child’s parent returns bearing groceries. Somehow the furry visitor knows to stay out of parental view, but the new friends continue their fun far past bedtime until the bear must return home. With this mostly wordless, whimsical wonder, South Korean debut author/artist Park places her exquisitely realistic, meticulously intricate drawings, made with colored pencil, watercolor, acrylic paint, ink, and collage, directly onto discarded cardboard. Beyond the onomatopoeic “KNOCK KNOCK,” the only other visible type is imprinted on the bear, as if it were garbed in Korean newspaper. Human and bear interactions are charming throughout—their complicit silence, their delighted dancing, the child’s tearful understanding of their impending parting. Park cleverly adds an underlying environmental message, with the polar bear a universal symbol of shrinking wildlife habitats, presented in materials embodying recycling and reusing. Front and back endpapers reveal the cardboard core, capturing child and bear initially connecting through the door’s peephole. All (human) characters are South Korean; the poignant goodbye occurs on the Busan coastline where Park resides.

An endearing adventure, brilliantly enhanced with subtle reminders to consider environmental preservation and protection.