Adrift: An Odd Couple of Polar Bears by Jessica Olien (review)

Rarely mentioned in discussion about global warming is the possibility that two incompatible polar bears might end up drifting on the same ice floe. This is the sad misfortune of Karl and Hazel, who have never gotten along; Karl finds Hazel standoffish as she reads and daydreams; Hazel finds Karl loud and prone to smell like old fish. They’re asleep on opposite sides of a snowy hill when it splits off from its ice sheet, and now they’re stuck with each other. “There is only one thing left to do,” so they build a wall of ice blocks between them and carry on—Hazel with her book, and Karl playing tic tac toe with a snowman. An ever melting wall forces them together, though, and soon the two are collectively building another snowman, taking turns catching dinner, and realizing that friendship might be a possibility—if they ever reach land. Olien narrates the dry, tongue-in-cheek text in an objective, almost clinical tone, while the pictures and the bears’ dialogue provide the comic counterpoint. Karl, with pink nose and round eyeglasses, can’t keep still even adrift at sea, plaintively belting out “All by Myself” behind his ice wall, and later joining Hazel in a “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” duet. Hazel, with black nose and polka dot scarf, isn’t the loner she seems to be, peeking over the ice wall to watch Karl. Surely no author with half a heart would allow two endearing bears to perish at sea, and Olien delivers a happy ending. She also gets real in an author’s note that briefly describes the polar bear’s habitat and why it is threatened by climate change. Sneak this one into a primary-grade science unit, or maybe use it as an offbeat selection for Valentine’s Day.