title: The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale
author:  Lydia Dabcovich 
description: Kindergarten-Grade 2. A whimsical tale in which an old Eskimo-Inuit woman adopts an orphan polar bear cub that provides food for her as it grows up. When the men of the village grow jealous of the animal's superior hunting ability and decide to kill it, she sends it away. For years afterward, she walks far out on the ice and meets the bear, who brings her salmon and seal. The story gives a picture of motherly love toward an "adopted child," one the woman will love always. "Little Bear," a selection in The Dancing Fox (Morrow, 1997), edited by John Bierhorst, is a similar tale, but the villains in that retelling are neighboring villagers who threaten to kill the bear since it is catching their food sources, and the woman and bear are never reunited. Thus, Polar Bear Son has a more satisfying ending. Illustrated in muted pastel colors, the pictures capture this stark, yet beautiful, winter world. The clothing styles are of Greenland Inuit but the landscape could be anywhere in the Arctic. The author gives explanations about the background and her research into Inuit tales. A heartwarming selection to fill requests for multicultural picture books and/or books on this region.?Mollie Bynum, formerly at Chester Valley Elementary School, Anchorage, AK<br />Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: The Winter Bear’s Bride
  Mina Carter
   
  To stop a war, she must become his.
   
  Analise, daughter of the Bear Elder, has status and luxury, though she’s a prisoner of her birth
  and despised by her father because she’s not the alpha son he needs. She keeps her head down
  and hoards lost knowledge that nearly destroyed the planet. She dreams of escape, but her father
  decides it's time for her to marry.
   
  He's hated her and all she represents for years. But once he meets her...
   
  Scar, rebel leader and were-polar bear, wants nothing more than to burn the clan system to the
  ground. It's cruel, unfair, and dedicated to keeping most of the populace in its place. To do so, he
  needs to take out the Bear Elder and his scheming daughter. As soon as he sees the delicate
  beauty of his enemy, though, all he can think of is making her his. And he's prepared to go to war
  to do so.
   
  Not all battles need to be fought in the field. Some are of the heart and the mind and he intends to
  win hers, whatever it t