Lost and Found

by Beck JiWon, Beck JiWon (Illustrator), Peter Pauper Press, Inc. (Created by)

Overview

In the snowy Alaskan landscape, a young indigenous girl crosses paths with a weak and hungry polar bear. But rather than retreating in fear, she chooses to approach the bear with tenderness by giving him all that she has to offer — a blanket and fish from her morning excursion. And although the girl's blanket is too small — the gesture is large. After feeling nourished and refreshed, the two new friends head out to play. When a snowstorm hits, the bear has a chance to return the girl's kindness and safely shepherds her home. Before each reunites with their parent they share one last embrace — creating a lifelong memory of their unique bond born of mutual respect and open hearts.

• 40-page full-color picture book with dust jacket.
• Picture book measures 10-1/2'' wide x 10-3/16'' high.
• Ages 3 to 8.

Written and illustrated by JiWon Beck.JiWon Beck delights in finding beauty and wonder in small things — like the shadows of buildings lining a street, and the whispering sounds heard in a gust of wind, to larger things like the vast and beautiful scenery of Alaska — which inspired this story. She lives with her husband and son in Korea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441331861
Publisher:	Peter Pauper Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/01/2019
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

Editorial Reviews

09/30/2019

Korean creator Beck imagines a wordless encounter between a polar bear and a young indigenous girl. An aerial view shows the fur-clad, rosy-cheeked child leaving her house, a tiny figure against a vast expanse of white. Using a fishhook tied to a short, stout stick, she has good luck while ice fishing, but when a storm overtakes her and she takes refuge in an igloo, she finds herself face-to-face with a polar bear who has the same idea. It raises its snout gently in greeting, she gives it fish and spreads her blanket over it, and it offers her warmth and affection inside and outside the structure. By the time they part, they are close friends. On the pages, the white bear is nearly invisible, its black eyes, snout, and claws marking its place. There’s striking visual contrast between great swaths of snow-covered tundra and the small, concentrated areas in which the two figures play and cuddle before heading back to their respective families. And though it’s a titch formulaic, the encounter of the huge beast with the tiny, vulnerable child delights. Ages 3–8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2019

PreS-Gr 2—This wordless picture book depicts the story of a young Indigenous girl who stumbles across a starving and weakened polar bear. She offers the bear a fish and her blanket (though it's much too small for such a big bear). Thankful for her generosity, the bear guides her through a snowstorm safely back to her home. The landscape illustrations are dazzling, though the pages of the bear and girl in the snow are the highlight of this book. Art teachers will covet it for its illustrations and the use of the white page, which effectively give a sense of just how much snow the bear and the girl are experiencing. VERDICT Purchase wherever wordless picture books are popular.—Shana Shea, Windsor Public Library, CT

School Library Journal

2019-08-28
An Arctic Native child and a polar bear forge a friendship in this wordless fable.

At the end of a day of fishing, the child unexpectedly encounters a polar bear in the igloo. Rather than taking fright, the child reaches out to touch the polar bear's nose, and the creature accepts the gesture. Following a shared fish dinner, a relationship of mutual care and joy develops. But then the two must part after a heartfelt embrace, the bear to its own kind and the child to the family that awaits in the frame house that is their permanent residence. True to Indigenous wisdom, the picture book teaches reciprocity between the animal world and humankind. Perhaps less appealing for adult readers is the nature of the reciprocal portrait, as it does not depict either traditional gratitude between hunter and prey or the realistic fear that a big carnivore creates. Perhaps the lack of realism is the point: A hungry polar bear being fed by a human does not help the species in the real world, but in this world a child can make a difference, and the absence of text gives adult-child pairs ample room to imagine. Beck's illustrations emphasize meticulous detail against expanses of Arctic white, the hairs on the child's fur-trimmed parka and the bear's coat rendered with equally loving precision

The imagination soars in this magical story of an unusual friendship. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews