A Bear Belongs: A Wildlife Rescue Story

In a two-part narrative, Barr and Hobday share the bracing but triumphant true account of three sun bears who are rescued from poachers and released back into the wild. After establishing that “Bears are in trouble” and that sun bears are among the world’s most endangered species, wrenching opening text imagines the brutal separation of one bear cub, Tan-Tan, from her mother: “They shoot her mother and then pull the cub roughly from her mother’s warm black fur.” The tone shifts quickly to one of optimism when the orphaned animal ends up in the hands of Dr. Wong, director of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center, who soon takes in two more cubs. With “fact files” interspersed throughout (“What makes a sun bear so special?”), brief chapters describe the multiyear effort to raise the endangered young and prepare them for reentry into the rainforest. Airy calligraphic paintings present the subjects as frolicsome and their environment as lush in vibrant, text-framing illustrations. It’s a sympathetic portrayal that makes a rousing case for conservation. Ages 5–8. (Aug.)