LITTLE POLAR BEAR AND THE PANDAS

The little polar bear’s newest adventure in this Swiss series takes him on a journey to China.

When Lars the polar bear curiously follows a group of tourists to the Arctic he becomes an accidental cruise-ship stowaway. Even though his new mouse friends on the ship are fun, the cub can’t wait to get home. Smuggled off the ship at the first port, Lars finds himself in a vast bamboo forest. There, he encounters Ying and Yong, twin pandas, who help him scale the Great Wall of China, the first step on his trip north. On the other side, a friendly otter named Oleg smuggles him onto an Arctic-bound mail plane. A joyful reunion with his relieved parents draws the adventure to a close. Following the formula established by previous Little Polar Bear titles, there’s minimal new ground covered in Lars’ newest adventure. While the journey is one of many miles, the story lacks urgency. Even Lars, a smile almost always upon his face, seems to know that nothing bad could ever come his way. Supporting characters are merely cardboard figures meant to convey Lars from one plot point to the next. Unfortunately, the depiction of the panda cubs begins with their cringeworthy names and continues with a description of them as nearly identical, a common Asian stereotype. Most alarmingly, Lars shows his parents what a panda looks like by smearing dirt on his father while his mother simpers, “Now black and white will be all the rage in the Arctic!” The parallels to blackface and the idea of race as fashionable are surpassingly distressing. Readers itching for an animal travelogue should opt instead for Longy Han and Elinor Hägg’s more authentic treatment, Gusto & Gecko Travel to China (2018). (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.15-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 63% of actual size.)

This little bear should have stayed at home.