An expedition to the Icelands featuring carnivorous cabbages, iced gem eating unicorns and penguin plasters. Our children’s book of the month for April is The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club
Polar Bear – the blurb
Join Stella Starflake Pearl and her three fellow explorers as they trek across the snowy Icelands and come face-to-face with frost fairies, snow queens, outlaw hideouts, unicorns, pygmy dinosaurs and carnivorous cabbages . . .
When Stella and three other junior explorers get separated from their expedition can they cross the frozen wilderness and live to tell the tale?
The best of everything
The Polar Bears Explorers’ Club really does have everything. Unicorns? Check. Shadow Wolves? Check. Magic, humour, danger, adventure? Check! Think the best bits of all your favorite books and this has it. By the bucket load. I as an adult loved it. I found it genuinely funny, unpredictable and entertaining. My then 10 year old (I’m way behind her in the reading stakes, she is now 12) also loved it and has gone on to read the next 3 in the series. Yes good news peeps, it’s a series!
It was a delight to read and I can imagine it would appeal to a wide range of middle graders. Special mention must be made to Tomislav Tomic who illustrated the book superbly. The cherry on the perfect sundae.
Book club questions
+++ These questions contain spoilers and should only be used if you have read the book already!+++
- Who knew that unicorns liked iced gems?! Can you think of some other creatures and guess what their favorite foods would be. Chilli eating Dragons? Crisp eating Octopus? Flump eating falcons?
- I thought the book really funny, especially when Ethan kept getting bitten. Which part did you find the funniest?
- Beard oil and moustache wax. What items would you have in your explorers bag?
- At the end of the book it explains a little more about each Explorers’ Club. Which one would you most like to belong to and why?
- What do you think will happen with the witch puppet?
If you would like to join in with our Children’s Book of the Month keep your eyes peeled when we announce April’s book in a few days time. Our review with book club questions is usually posted on the last Monday of the month and you can check out previous Book of the Months such as Orion Lost by Alastair Chisholm by clicking on the Young Adult/Kids button at the top of our Home Page. In the meantime we would love to see what you have been reading.
