What do you do if you are a large polar bear lost in a city? Very sensibly you try to find someone to help you get back to the North Pole. All the city inhabitants are much too busy to answer a question – rushing about all over. So, you join a queue and wait for your turn – unfortunately this is for coffee! Bear is not a fan of the takeaway soy latte he gets handed (the expression on his face is a delight!)
Next, he finds a less than helpful ‘help desk’ which hands him a tube map. Unfortunately, the North Pole is not on the map! But whilst he is on the tube he is greeted by a small girl – finally a friendly face in the big city. Through a mixture of amusing encounters with life in a house with the girl and her family, they eventually manage to get Bear home to the North Pole.
Friendship and understanding have won out in the end. What a delightful book illustrating just how important friendship is in making anyone feel safe. Humour and laugh out loud moments in the story will engage children and adults as they read it together. Bright illustrations using the page in a variety of ways make this a visual delight from start to finish. Don’t forget to look at the end papers too – a lovely record of the friendship in colourful vignettes.
A new book from award-winning illustrator Mariajo Ilustrajo,Lost is the story of a polar bear who finds himself lost, in a big concrete city. He politely asks the city folk for help but everyone is much too busy and impatient to help the newcomer. He finds himself traveling on the subway only to be noticed, finally by a little girl. The girl takes the homesick bear by the paw and under her innocent wing. Under the nose of her seemingly unaware mum, she feeds him dinner, gives him a bath and they read stories together. When the polar bear wistfully looks at a poster of the North Pole on her bedroom wall, the little girl realizes that her friend needs help to get home.This is a story about the power friendship has to help you feel found, and even to transport you home.
