Polar Bear Bowler

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY FEB 5, 2018

In a charming wordless story, a polar bear climbs aboard a boat and hitches a ride down to Antarctica. After clambering up onto an ice sheet, the bear spies three distant shapes that resemble bowling pins and begins to roll a snowball. Readers may guess (correctly) that the bowling pins are actually penguins, and after one of them gets hit by the polar bear's first throw, the birds pummel the bear with snowballs that pile up to create an igloo to trap him. Sanborn's cartooning is full of these kinds of rapid-fire gags, which give the animals' back-and-forth games the feel of classic cartoon battles between the likes of Tom and Jerry or Sylvester and Tweety. It's all in good fun, though, and eventually the bear uses his bulk to create a bowling lane that they can all play on one that uses pins made of snow, not birds. The story ends abruptly (a seal pops up in the bowling lane, suggesting a new player may be joining the party), but the polish and physical comedy of Sanborn's images more than compensate. Ages 4 8. (BookLife)