Polar Bears On The Path

Animal Ark [GB Order] #53

by Ben M. Baglio, Ann Baum (Illustrator), Jenny Gregory (Illustrator)

An alternate cover edition can be found here.

An adventurous series sure to win the hearts of animal lovers everywhere!

At Animal Ark, Mandy Hope helps her parents treat animals of all shapes and sizes. Even outside the clinic, Mandy can't resist helping any animal in need.

The Hopes are in the small town of Churchill to watch polar bears migrating north. It's a spectacular sight. But when one of the cubs strays from his mother, Mandy fears for his safety. Can she help reunite the cub with his family before winter sets in?

Genres: Animals, Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Contemporary, Fiction, Kids

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published June 1, 2005

About the author

Ben M. Baglio created the brief for two series of children's books - Dolphin Diaries and Animal Ark. Dolphin Diaries features a girl and her family from Florida, who travel around the world as marine biologists and study dolphins. Animal Ark features two children who work together to help animals and solve animal-related mysteries. The books were written by commissioned writers in the UK under Baglio's instruction using the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. Each ghostwriter is named with a 'Special Thanks' on the copyright page.

Using his real name he also wrote the book series The Pet Finders Club, featuring a group of three children who search for peoples lost pets.

Reviews

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a 2.5, so I rounded it up to 3. Despite the name of the author on the cover, the real writer was Ingrid Maitland. She's a veteran of many books in the Animal Ark Universe. The illustrations were done by Anne Baum, who did a good job on the polar bears, but not such a hot job on the Scottish Terrier Hamish.

This is the first book of the Animal Ark in the Arctic trilogy. This time, the Hopes (the only two vets in their practice, mind) and Mandy jet off to Chruchill, Canada -- a town shown many a documentary on polar bears. The Hopes are to work on a study of how climate change is affecting the Arctic. So, now they're six weeks away from their supposedly thriving vet practice.

This trilogy was also published in America by Scholastic under the title Polar Bears on the Path. American kids probably wondered what the heck Mandy was talking about when she reminisced about the Hopes' trip to Africa, since those books were never published in America.

James doesn't come on holiday with the Hopes this time around, but his part is played by a girl about James' age called Alicia, the daughter of the family the Hopes are temporarily staying at. She owns the Scottie Hamish, which is the best character in the book, by far. He has epilepsy, which is sadly all too common in Scottish Terriers.

The father is a stereotypical Scot -- or, maybe not so stereotypical since he has a steady job. (That's a Craig Ferguson joke, so don't yell at me.)

It has been been mentioned in other books that polar bears are among Mandy's favorite animals, but she seems not to know much about them. I know that dialogue where the kid asks questions of an adult is a standard narrative device in kid's fiction, but JESUS CHRIST, is gets on your tits after a while.

There is a big deal about not feeding polar bears in polar bear jail, which seems pretty cruel. It would've been nice if there was a decent explanation made for bears that were clearly starving. I highly doubt the polar bears cubs would've survived such an ordeal in real life.

Since this book was published in 2002, things have gotten a lot worse for Canadian polar bears, including the polars of Churchill.

[Texmexlex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am probably the only die-hard Animal Ark fan in the world but I found these little books in a scholastic book fair once, and Polar Bears on the Path was my first one. I began to collect them, I was OBSESSED with them. I even made an Animal Ark diorama once inspired by this book in particular. I found them a little too late in life, but despite the reading level, I read this well into my teenage years. They were a comfort to me - when all the world around me went to chaos, I knew I could cuddle up to an Animal Ark book at night and all would be right. A perfect little world with a perfect little dream, for a moment I could be a child again with no worries. I would still read any of these books to this day, and especially on a bad day. Maybe it's nostalgia at this point, or just the comfort of knowing they will never fail to bring me peace. Ben Baglio, if you ever see this, just know I am grateful to you

[Katja Labonté · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars & 3/10 hearts. I wasn’t as much a fan of this book as I was of Husky in a Hut. I didn’t like the characters as much, and the plot was way slower. I did find that except for the Halloween mentions, it was just as clean as the first book. And I appreciated the look at a very unique city in my country, and the info on polar bears.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this not very enjoyable as a read-aloud, because it had a lot of sentences that you can skip without it really affected the plot; it’s not very tightly written and is a tad boring at parts. But I think it would be great for a kid to read to themselves at the right age. Lots about animals and the things the “polar sheriff” does to keep polar bears from invading the town when they’re hungry right before the pack ice freezes. Protecting the bears from the people and the people from the bears. Plus Mamdy’s parents who are vets help out.

Ons thing I found interesting is that this was one of the few books for this age that I’ve read where the kids truly do only kid-appropriate things. Mandy doesn’t somehow run off and save a bear on her own; she’s mostly with the grownups who are doing it, and learns from watching them. The grownups make sure she’s never in danger from the bears. It’s a very different feel from, say, the Boxcar Children where they’re always solving mysteries on their own.

[Anthony Waddington · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a dreadful book. Reading it with my daughter, as her set reading book from school, was an exercise in watching the joy of reading be drained from a child. The book is riddled with grammatical errors. The writing style is clumsy and there is no discernable plot. In the words of my daughter:

"It is the worst book in my whole life that I have ever read in the world ever".

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 8 year old like this book a lot, though I felt the plot was a bit lacking. Interesting to get some insight into life in Manitoba, but most of the story revolves around saving a family of polar bears, which while keeping the attention of my son, was lacking much personal interest.

[Erica Drum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Infromational for my kids not super interesting to hold attention for my 6 year old.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 4 out of 5]

(LL)
I liked that this was a change in animal for the series. Polar bears are cool and it was nice to see a unique animal featured in the series!

[swsreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite part was when the 0 please bears were brought safely back to there home. the worst part was when polo got hurt. the best character was Mandy. there was no worst character. this book is mostly about Mandy rescuing the polar bears and naming the hurt one polo when it was recovering

[Catherine Mohs · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's alright. It has a great tendency to put animals before people and it obviously biased toward environmentalism. However, it's a simple and fun book for young children to read and has interesting facts about different animals.

[Taylor Troncin]

Loved this series when I was younger. Still a huge animal lover and would like to read the rest of this series!

[Elizabeth O'donnell]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12926954

[Shyuan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my little cousin and she love it!

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mandy is visiting Churchville to see some polar bears. One bear gets lost from its mother. Can Mandy help him get back to its mother before its to late?
This book is great. I really like it.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandy helps a polar bear family reunite before winter sets in while visiting Canada.