Bestselling duo Jean Craighead George and Wendell Minor team up to show young readers the natural world. The Last Polar Bear is a poignant tale about a boy desperate to save one of the last polar bears in the rapidly changing Arctic environment. Can Tigluk and his grandmother help the young cub who lost his mother? Frequent collaborators Jean Craighead George and Wendell Minor present another beautiful and moving picture book to join their well-received books Everglades and Galapagos George . Supports the Common Core State Standards Kindergarten-Grade 2—George attempts to bring home the plight of the polar bear due to global warming and climate change. The text is simple, with only two or three sentences per page. Tigluk sees a polar bear approaching from his window, and he goes out to meet it. He comes face to face with the animal, who seems to be asking him to follow it. The child and his grandmother repair the sealskin kayak that has been damaged by floating garbage and head off to find the bear. Instead they find a cub nestled on one of the few remaining ice floes. They name him Pilluk, which means "to survive," and return with him to their village. "Our town will feed Pilluk, the last of the polar bears, and show him how to live in a warming world." There is a problem here in terms of the unlikeliness of this scenario—there are no details as to how the people are going to approach teaching the cub. Minor's exquisite watercolors are riveting, however, and capture the beauty (and chill) of the frozen landscape with panache, and children will be drawn to the book by the endearing picture of the cub on the cover. The story can perhaps serve as a vehicle for introducing the subject of global warming, but, in and of itself, it raises more questions than it answers.— Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. The world is warming, and the ice is melting. Tigluk must save the last polar bear. From master storyteller Jean Craighead George, with art from the critically acclaimed Wendell Minor. Jean Craighead George  wrote over one hundred books for children and young adults. Her novel Julie of the Wolves won the Newbery Medal in 1973, and she received a 1960 Newbery Honor for My Side of the Mountain . Born into a family of famous naturalists, Jean spent her entire career writing books that celebrated the natural world. Wendell Minor is nationally known for the artwork he has created for over sixty award-winning children’s books. His many collaborators include Jean Craighead George, Robert Burleigh, Buzz Aldrin, Tony Johnston, Nikki Grimes, Mary Higgins Clark, and, last but not least, his wife, Florence. He is also the author and illustrator of My Farm Friends.