Polar The Titanic Bear

 

Book: Polar The Titanic Bear 

Author: Daisy Corning Stone Spedden 

Illustrator: Laurie McGaw 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Awards: Silver Birch Award of the Ontario Library Association

Age Group: 1-4

Summary: 

A bear was created in order to fulfil a large Christmas order. He was then crammed into a box and shipped to a store in which he waited for someone to get him. Finally one day, he was taken by a woman who gave him to a little boy, his new Master, who proceeded to name the bear Polar. Polar then joins his Master as they travel all around the world. As they are in Paris, they board the magnificent new ship, the Titanic, to sail back to America. On the ship, they loved exploring and playing around. However, on the fifth night, Polar awakens to his Master being dressed in a hurry. There is hushed whispers of the ship being struck by an iceberg as they climb onto one of the lifeboats. They watch the mighty Titanic go down and hours later, they are rescued by the Carpathia. Everyone gets rescued except for Polar who was left alone in the lifeboat. Luckily, a sailor picks up Polar and unites him with his Master and they settle down, Polar occupying a corner of his Masters heart and the Master loyal to Polar till the end. 

Evaluation and Comments:

Polar The Titanic Bear is a book telling of the events of the mighty Titanic hitting a iceberg and going down. However, with a twist! The book is told through the point of view of a passengers stuffed bear, a bear named Polar. 

Throughout the story, we are looking through Polar's eyes and see his relationship with his Master grow. With that, the story focuses more on Polar's life with his Master and less on the events that occurred on the Titanic. The telling of Titanic was just a small moment in Polar's and the Masters life.  Thus, if students read this book, they will learn more about Polar's life then the Titanic so because of that, I wouldn't really use this book in my classroom. 

However, if you do choose to use this book, a activity you can do is use this book as an introduction and then have students go out and do their own research over the Titanic and or some of it's passengers. Also, since the story is told through the eyes of Polar, you can introduce point-of-view and introduce an activity in which students create stories through different point-of-views. 

In conclusion, Polar The Titanic Bear does not have my seal of approval.