The Ice Bear by Jackie Morris (2010) was a powerful story due to magnificent watercolor illustrations. Power eminates from the cover art; a close-up of a polar bear's face looking directly at the reader. The bear's majestic presence projects from the title page on which Morris paints a profile. Throughout the book we see large paintings of the story's characters in close and intimate. We feel the furry warmth of this bear cuddling with her two babies. We're shocked and afraid when a raven, so large as to extend beyond the boundaries of the page, carries off one of the cubs. The raven drops the cub and it magically transforms into a human infant and a passing hunter scoops it up. Both the human parents and the mother bear are passionate about this human-cub. When the child is seven, the raven returns and tricks the child into wandering back into the wild. The ending is heartwarming. I don't have the cultural knowledge to adequately summarize this story, but I can say it is a beautiful tale.
