animal adventures

OTTER AND ODDER brings together James Howe and illustrator (newly Caldecott winning illustrator) Chris Raschka (Candlewick Press 2012) in a love story for the ages. Otter finds love unexpectedly in the form of his food source, a fish named Myrtle (it might be Gurgle, though, because Otter has water in his ears). It is a love that in unconventional to say the least. How can this love ever survive? Otter and Myrtle must somehow find a way to be together, but is that even possible? While I hesitate to say this could be a wonderful parable for our time, the story dies make the point that we cannot control with whom we fall in love, and sometimes love brings together two people who might (on the surface) see to be ill-suited for one another. Raschka's watercolor and crayon illustrations and Howe's unblinkingly straightforward text are a perfect combination. <164>





WAITING FOR ICE by Sandra Markle with illustrations by Alan Marks (Charlesbridge 2012) is the story of a polar bear cub separated from his mother. He is struggling to survive until the ice comes and allows the cub and the rest of the polar bears to travel from their small piece of real estate to a place where food is more plentiful and survival might be a tad easier. Seamlessly blending details and facts into her story of this abandoned cub, Markle shines light on the threats to animals who depend on ice for survival in these days of global warming. <165>