One day Lars, the Little Polar Bear, rescues a husky puppy from a deep crack in the ice. Instead of thanking Lass, the puppy snarls and yaps at him. Disgusted, Lars heads off towards the sea. The little dog follows him and soon finds herself in trouble again stranded on a floating piece of ice. "Please don't leave me!" she calls to Lass. "I'm hungry and I want my mother!" So once again, it's Lass to the rescue. But can he get the impetuous pup back safely to the rest of the husky team? Fans of Lars's earlier adventures will welcome him back in this new story, and those meeting him for the first time will be won over by Hans de Beer's beguiling hero.

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Lars the Little Polar Bear rescues a stranded husky puppy and helps her find food and her mother.

PreS-Lars is back in another adventure that seems to follow the pattern of his previous outings. The little polar bear leaves home on a walk, gets lost, and eventually finds his way home, meeting new animal friends along the way. In this title, he is chased by huskies when he comes too close to an igloo while looking for food. He escapes, but later finds a puppy that has gotten separated from the pack and has fallen through a crack in the ice. Lars and Floe become friends and the bear guides him back to the safety of civilization. While Lars is an independent spirit exploring the North Pole on his own, Floe wants nothing more than to be reunited with his mother. Even dangerous situations are rendered benign in de Beer's watercolor illustrations-hunters wave guns at the pair and the pup falls into a chasm in the ice without noticeable effect. The story is more appropriate for reading with children one-on-one rather than in a group-there are large blocks of text on each page. This title may be popular in libraries that circulate the other "Little Polar Bear" books, but there is nothing original here.-Susan Marie Pitard, Weezie Library for Children, Nantucket Atheneum, MA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.