Great Crystal Bear [Hardcover]

Carolyn Lesser (Author), William Noonan (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Blending poetic language and scientific fact, Carolyn Lesser explores how one magnificent bear lives throughout the year. Impressionistic paintings follow the bear as he hunts, swims, plays, and journeys in the far north. “Lyrical in tone and accurate in zoological detail, the narrative is ideal for one-on-one sharing.”--School Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3?This prose poem about the life of a polar bear is in perfect artistic harmony with its dramatic illustrations. Full- and double-page spreads in arctic white and blue capture the sweep of the northern landscape, with only the golden-tinged giant bear and his prey, the brown seal, to add a touch of warmth to the rugged, cold beauty. The beautifully designed watercolors are naturalistic but done with an idealized softness that suits the poetic mood of the text as it describes the bear's solitary life from season to season. Moving through the star-studded, snowflake-spangled winter darkness, stalking softly on huge paws across the ice, curling snugly in a bed of snow, arrowing through turquoise waters, or looming purposefully above an unwary seal, the great crystal bear exists in a raw, hard, dangerous world that is awesome and majestic, as well. For emphasis and variety, the poem is printed in white on dark backgrounds and black on the lighter ones. Lyrical in tone and accurate in zoological detail, the narrative is ideal for one-on-one sharing.?Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 5^-8. In a rolling, poetic text, Lesser wonders about the life of a polar bear, asking, "Great crystal bear / How do you survive on the thick ice / Covering the deep Arctic sea?" She weaves her gentle musings with solid scientific information, as the bear searches for food, traps and eats a seal, and play fights with younger bears to teach them how to battle for a mate. Noonan's watercolors show a landscape of blue-green water, shiny white ice, and a white bear dappled with the reflections of the aurora borealis for a luminous effect. He depicts the bear with majesty and beauty, minus cuteness and cuddliness. Younger listeners may get wiggly because of the text's quiet tone and length, but for primary-graders, this would make an evocative addition to a unit on the Arctic. Susan Dove Lempke

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152006672
• ISBN-13: 978-0152006679
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,172,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Polar Bears and the Arctic, August 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Crystal Bear (Hardcover)

I loved this. The language was poetic and relaxing. My six year year loved it, my 3 year old loved the pictures. The illustrations are beautiful.

4.0 out of 5 stars A poetic look at the life of Nanuk, the great polar bear, February 3, 2002

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Great Crystal Bear (Hardcover)

Remember when you used to draw a polar bear eating marshmallows in an Artic snowstorm? There is certainly something compelling about polar bears, those lumbering giants covered in white fur with those coal black eyes and nose. Author Carolyn Lesser actually traveled to the Artic with experts on these majestic creatures to watch them in their wild environs. The result is a creative blend of poetic language with facts of nature as we follow the Great Crystal Bear through the change of the seasons. William Noonan provides the illustrations, where white and blue are the dominant colors. While the book is completely accurate in terms of how polar bears live their solitary existence up North--hunting, swimming, playing and traveling around its snowy kingdom--we are spared the actual sight of the bear eating the seal he is tracking (we simply see the bear closing in on his prey). I certainly like Lesser's approach, of couching science and nature in poetic phrases. I think that young students will find this more instructive than a straightforward nature lesson. I do wish there was an appendix or some sort of afterward that would already provide more scientific details about polar bears, because teachers are going to have to do some research to answer the questions their students will have about the Great Crystal Bear after reading this book.