posted on 23 Jan 2024

Ice Journey of the Polar Bear by Martin Jenkins, Illustrated by Lou Baker-Smith

Some of the most distressing and powerful images of climate change that most of us have seen are the pictures of forlorn and bedraggled Polar Bears desperately trying to find their way over melting ice-floes, seeking food or some safe place to breed. There’s something deeply moving about seeing these extraordinary and noble animals looking lost and bewildered and they seem to have become a symbol of the wider threat global warming represents to all life on Earth.

This big, generous and lavishly illustrated book, part of a ‘Protecting the Planet’ series, imagines the story of one such bear trying to adapt to the changes, keep herself safe and find a place that will allow her to raise her new cubs safely.

The text is informative without being preachy and, as we follow the journey the bear makes, we discover all sorts of astonishing facts. Finding food is obviously a priority and our bear has to take it wherever the opportunity presents itself – a dead beluga whale washed up on the shoreline provides several days of gorging until a bigger, male bear shows up and chases ours off. 

Shelter from the cold storms is also important and finding the right place to protect her from the howling winds is her priority. She becomes a snow engineer:

“Soon there’s a tunnel, then a snug little room with a hole in the top. She smooths off the walls, blocks the entrance with snow and settles down to wait.”

She waits in her new home and sleeps, waiting and sensing changes in the temperature. But:

“Soon, her cubs are born. Twins – a boy and a girl, tiny and helpless….”

She feeds and nurtures them and the cubs have plenty to learn:

“It’s a lot warmer and everything is melting quickly. Places that would usually still be frozen are all wet and slushy….”

Amazingly, it’s been eight months since she last ate properly and they must find food – the targets are the seal pups on the ice. She will have the cubs with her for two years if they both survive and then the youngsters will leave to have a life of their own.

But what will that life look like on a warming planet?

Lou-Baker-Smith’s painterly, realist illustrations fill the pages and bring the Polar Bear’s journeys vividly to life and I’m delighted that the publisher has gone for a larger format to accommodate them.

Available from Walker Books, you’ll be able to get your copy from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

Terry Potter

January 2024