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Why comics matter for young readers 02/12/24
The Ice Bear
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
In icy northern lands, a great white bear gives birth to tiny cubs. But raven the trickster steals one cub away, dropping the creamy bundle of fur in a hunter’s path. The hunter and his wife discover a longed-for child – and rejoice: the bear never forgets her lost cub.
Seven years pass, then raven lures the child back into the wilderness where the lost, bewildered boy finds himself surrounded by great bears who call him ‘brother’. Now the bear/boy must find a way to live with each of his two families.
Bold and sensuous, the monochrome tones, striking contrasts and vivid flashes of colour of the illustrations strikingly underscore this mythic tale of a harsh, elemental and icy world.