by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 20, 2010

"Rest, Little One. The daylight comes creeping, and our deep, lovely night must go…"

"Click!" is a surprisingly poetic book, with beautiful watercolor illustrations of a snow-covered forest. It follows a format I've seen in other children's books, contrasting an animal family with an identically-sized human family. Throughout the book, each left page describes the baby polar bear and its mother, while the right page describes a playful little boy..and his mother. But the story is extra magical, because the descriptions are simple, free-form rhymes.

"Striding through thawing snows,
the great bear travels,
and the small bear follows
close in his mother's track.

Hugging the old highway,
The great hunter speeds,
And the small hunter clings
Close to his mother's back."

The great "hunter," of course, is the boy's mother, who just wants to snap photographs of the polar bears. And in a nice twist, her little boy runs off to chase the birds on the nearby ice, and accidentally stumbles across the baby polar bear, who's playing on a snowy hill. ("Surprise!" writes author Shutta Crum.) I appreciate the way she moves the story to the perspective of the little boy. Though she should know what appeals to young readers, since according to the book's jacket, she's been a "youth librarian" for over 20 years. (And, more importantly, "she has been fascinated by polar bears her whole life.")

The jacket adds that illustrator John Beder is "pretty fond of polar bears too," and he brings a brightness to the story, with sunny watercolors of both the boy and the smiling baby bear. The wintry mountains around them are speckled with Christmas-y evergreen trees, and it looks like they're both having a lot of fun. He draws suitably happy and innocent expressions on their faces, but he also recreates a realistic world for their adventure.  Since the poetic text is a little abstract and flowery, Beder fills in much of the story's detail. Like a good bedtime story, it starts to feel timeless and even iconic. Ultimately the book's simple text and colorful illustrations remind me of the careful quality that went into the "Dick and Jane" primers that taught children how to read through the 1960s.

The last page of the book feels especially warm, since the sky lights up with colorful streaks from the Aurora Borealis. Like the book's first page, the stars in the sky subtly form the shape of two polar bears. But it's the cozy rhyme that sets the sweet tone for the book's final note

"Look, Little One. The darkness is streaming,
and our deep, lovely night's all aglow.

Mama is here.
Little stars are all gleaming,
while others are dreaming below."

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