PUP AND BEAR

A lost wolf pup is taken in by a polar bear in Banks and Stoop's sweet arctic tale.

As winter descends on the Arctic tundra, a young wolf pup becomes separated from his pack, isolated on an ice floe. He swims to shore, tired and cold, and finds himself face to face with a large polar bear. Frightened, the pup is perplexed when the bear nuzzles him rather than attacking: “Aren’t you going to eat me?” After all, “Polar bears eat wolves.” “Not this one” is the polar bear’s reply, and she explains that though she is not his mother, she can keep him safe and warm. The two stay together through the Big Freeze and the Big Melt, the bear teaching the pup how to fish, playing with him, and, when the time comes, gently sending him out into the world on his own. The pup, now a fully grown arctic wolf, acquires a pack of his own, leading it over the tundra until, one day, he comes upon a small polar bear cub alone in the snow and pays forward the care he was shown as a pup. This quiet tale of kindness, adoption, and reciprocity uses sparse text to great effect among the crisp, wind-swept, snow-laden illustrations that practically crunch as the pages turn, cycling through the “wheel of life.”

A chilly tale to warm the heart.