Based on a true story, Waiting for Ice follows an orphaned polar bear cub as she struggles to find food on Wrangel Island, far north in the Arctic Ocean. Left alone at ten months old, the young female finds herself up against other bears who are bigger and stronger than she is—and just as hungry. Due to rising temperatures, the bears are trapped on the island until the ice packs reform. Only then can they venture out to hunt for seals and whales, using the ice as life rafts. This poignant tale illustrates the serious threat of global climate crisis to these iconic Arctic predators. A polar bear cub, barely 10 months old, gets separated from her mother on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. Because the ice has melted during the very long summer, the cub is trapped, left struggling to survive with other hungry polar bears, until at last a blizzard comes, the pack ice returns, and the cub can travel on the ice floes to hunt for food and find her mother. Based on a true story reported by a scientist who observed the cub on Wrangel, the spare, poetic free verse about the land that is “harsh, hungry––and home” is illustrated with dramatic double-page watercolor-and-pencil artwork in arctic blues and whites that show the desperate cub scavenging and searching, until finally she is freed. The immediate survival struggle will hook children, while young conservationists will want to find out more, and well-organized back matter spells out the crucial messages about the threats of global warming. Grades 1-3. --Hazel Rochman Sandra Markle has written over seventy nonfiction books for young readers, including her Growing Up Wild and Outside and Inside series. Her books have won awards from the Boston Globe/Horn Book, NSTA/CBC, ABA, and ALA. She lives in Florida.