Steve Macleod

Looking for interesting nonfiction books for kindergarden readers, I stumbled across I am a Polar Bear. Though it is a book geared towards younger readers, it has many noteworthy features. The book is very minimalist. Each set of pages is a large photograph with simple, one-sentence text. The text is in large, black font placed in a text box, thus making it easy to read. Page numbers are clearly marked on the bottom of each page. After the text, there is a section called Polar Bear Facts. This is an ellaboration on the one-sentence text. The far left column contains the page number, followed by a thumbnail of the corresponding page. Next to the thumbnail is the actual text, bolded and large. Following the actual text is additional information relating to the sentence or topic, typically two to three sentences long. The following page, Word List, states that "Research shows that as much as 65 percent of all written material published in English is made up of 300 words." Therefore the books tries to include sight words, 29 in fact, in authentic text.
The most interesting feature of this book though is the web connection. The company AV2 has a website. Type in the web address, which can be found throughout the book, and you have access to even more information about polar bears. There is a video with some slightly muffled comentary, slide show, links to websites for more information about polar bears, activities such as mazes and spot the difference, as well as quizes. You can even mail the results of hte quizes to someone. While some of the activites are less than fresh, the additional links can be fun and informative. One link is to a National Geographic site that included a map of where the bears live, video and audio, an e-card and slide show. The website provided by the book is a great source of collected resources that are interesting and child friendly.
The book is more useful in teaching children to read than providing factual information about polar bears. The table of contents is creative and cute, but may muddle the line between fiction and nonfiction. The table of contents page is a polar bear cub stating, "In this book I will teach you about..." This is followed by a bulleted list of what to expect (myself, my food, my home, my family). We all know polar bears can't talk, right?… (mehr)