Book Review: The Polar Bear Explorers' Club by Alex Bell

This children’s fiction is mix of both genre adventure and fantasy. The story is staged against the freezing, snowy landscapes of Iceland. Well, the story indicates that the time is modern, however what time runs parallel or in the background isn’t clear.

The plot revolves around a girl called Stella. When she was a toddler she was picked up by Felix from the unexplored territory of a snowscape. He raised her, and now she is brave and loyal girl of twelve. Felix is a fairyologist and belongs to The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club but he has not gone on an expedition for over ten years. The reason behind it – he was raising her.

Felix is pink and Stella is as white as mountain snow. Because of her skin complexion, she looks different in her school. It becomes clear that her family roots are different than of her present community. Felix is not her real father. Where does she come from? Felix talks to fairies; through these fairies he chose the name for Stella. Stella wishes to be an explorer. She believes that people with three names (Stella Starflake Pearl) are destined to be explorer. She is now twelve; hence, she must go on an expedition. She insists to go on an expedition with her father who is about to go soon. As per the Club’s rule girls or women aren’t allowed. On the other hand, boys as young as eleven or twelve are going on expeditions without restrictions.

After much insistence, Felix takes her with him. She and a couple of more friends of her join the expedition. After sometime Stella and her friends cut off from the rest of the expedition. At this point their real adventure and exploration kick off. As they being lost advance, the novel begins offering non-stop adventure and high-value imagination. Their encounter with fantasy creatures like pygmy dinosaurs and carnivorous cabbages and unicorns make this book tightly packed with adventure and thrill. Will they manage to track down the other members of the expedition? Will Stella reach out to a place to find out origins?

Over all, The Polar Bear Explorers' Club is a tale of adventure, exploration, and friendship set in the coldest snowscapes of Iceland with Stella Starflake Pearl as a lead character. Readers will like the story of the fact that the protagonist is a brave, go-getter little girl Stella who is not a normal little girl after all, and there are fantasy elements to keep the pace maintained.

Comments

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike. This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...

Kevein Books and Reviews

Search This Blog