The Great Bear

Annie Booker’s striking debut picture book plunges readers into the frozen waters of the Arctic where the Great Bear ‘as old as the sea and just as wise’, watches over every living thing. The quiet harmony is interrupted by the arrival of a boat, belching out black smoke, its red hull a visual trespass in the green waters. The story becomes a fable about man’s greed and wanton destruction of the natural world, as the (every)man on the ship sinks a huge pipe into the sea bed, black tendrils snaking through the water and tangling the great white bear herself until, in a wordless double page spread, she is barely visible in the blackness. At this point we understand the power of the bear as she rears up to dominate the page, rolling the small red figure of the man into the depths of the ocean and forcing him to witness what he has done. The story becomes one of hope as, shamed, the man sets out to restore the ocean to health. The message, though familiar, is still important and the images of the Great Bear in her watery green world are awe-inspiring, Booker’s illustrations creating a real sense of size, strength and power. Other creatures of the arctic seas, seals, narwhals, whales, are depicted with the same dynamism and movement. An author’s note provides readers with information about the Arctic, the threats facing it, and ways they can help protect it.