YOUNG LARRY

The Pinkwaters (Wallpaper from Space, 1996, etc.) combine facts and hilarious fancy, enriched by the author's knack for turning a phrase. Larry and Roy are polar bear cubs with a father of some renown: He once ate a whale. They keep their distance from him; their mother informs them that their father would probably ``give you a hit in the head, and tell you to get lost.'' She also mentions that she will be doing the same one day. ``Wow. That is harsh,'' note the boys. The day arrives when she tells them to ``go and fend for yourselves,'' and one boy asks the other, ``So, do you think we know how to fend?'' The author's humor and pacing, dialogue, and storytelling all shine as the story goes south—Larry floats on some ice to New Jersey, where he becomes a lifeguard in order to earn money for muffins he remembers fondly from a tourist ship he once saw. The illustrator's arctic landscapes are unusual and pleasing, and though her animals are barely sketched, they convey the bulk of the bears as well as their human-like postures and their playfulness. (Picture book. 3-6)