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Picture Books

 Daniel Pinkwater is a gifted writer whose picture-book output includes a series on polar bears.


Larry, a kind polar bear, forms a friendship with a human family. On one level, all is well; Larry's friends own a hotel, and the swimming pool has been repurposed as an icy "polar bear zone." When human patrons ask if it's safe to share the pool with Larry, the proprietress shrugs and says, "Probably." (Almost no one finds this reassuring.)

On another level, Larry wants more. He wants to explore the world. His human buddy takes him out to a diner; she cloaks him with a pair of sunglasses and a trench coat, and she claims that he is "an uncle from Minneapolis." Larry enjoys himself, then discovers the zoo, where his brother is trapped within an enclosure. Problem solved: The enclosure is, in fact, ineffective. Polar bears remain in their pits only because they *choose* to do so--as a service to humans.

Re-teamed with his brother, Larry finds that he has all that he needs; he takes a celebratory swim. The End.

The highlight of this book occurs at the zoo; having discovered his brother, Larry exclaims, "Well, I'll be a busted-up penguin with a bent beak!" Either you enjoy this sensibility or you're someone who is unlikely to be my buddy.

Two thumbs up.




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