Waiting for Ice by Sandra Markle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Markle and Marks are a good team for this story, because Marks helps keep the tone very close to the natural. The unforgiving nature of wild animals for most orphaned babies is interesting, and the illustrations aid the text in achieving this heartbreaking tone. The bulk of the story is about surviving on scraps, and how difficult this is--pretty dark material. And Markle does not end the story with the happy ending based Nikita Ovsyanikov's later observations of the cub's survival. Instead she focuses on the return of the ice as a new beginning for the cub. I thought this was an elegant turn in the storytelling, avoiding the easy resolution for the more poetic one that leaves questions. There is plenty of information to explore both this specific story, as well as other resources to extend study on polar ice and bears.
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