How to Help a Hare and Protect a Polar Bear by Jess French; illustrated by Angela Keoghan

How to Help a Hare and Protect a Polar Bear by Jess French; illustrated by Angela Keoghan. Nosy Crow, 2024. 9798887770574

Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3

Format: Hardcover picture book

What did you like about the book:   How to Help a Hare and Protect a Polar Bear is a beautifully illustrated nonfiction picture book about habitats and conservation. This book introduces 9 different habitats, 4 – 5 of example animals that live in each of those habitats, and ways kids can help protect the habitat and animals. Each habitat is first introduced with a two-page spread that shows species existing together. The habitat is described clearly in one paragraph with a second paragraph detailing the challenges that human existence has posed for that habitat and how humans are harming the species in that ecosystem through pollution, development, and invasive species. The third and fourth page for each habitat introduces sample animals and a few examples of ways that children can help the animals in that habitat. The illustrations are colorful and include friendly looking animals with descriptions of their size and weight. At the end of the book, there are a few extra pages with more information about endangered species, as well as other ideas for ways that kids can help. 

This book gives a lot of good ideas for ways that kids can personally make a difference for the planet. The book shines most when the “how you can help” aligns with the habitat such as “take part in online dragonfly counts to find out which species live in your local wetland” or “ask your grown-up not to use chemical pesticides and fertilizers in the garden”. This would make a great book to read for Earth Day as long as the class extended the discussion to discuss corporate and government responsibilities, as well. 

Includes a table of contents, a glossary, and an index.

Anything you didn’t like about it? The “simple things you can do” listed after each habitat are presumably supposed to be directly linked to ways to protect that habitat, but often they are more general ways to help the planet like “eat locally sourced foods,” use the car less, don’t leave the tap running, and wear extra layers. Due to this, organizing the entire book around habitats and ways to help those habitats feels a little false. More important, though, like most environmental books for children, the book posits that the power to fix environmental problems “is in YOUR hands” without explaining the role that government and corporations play in environmental degradation. Kids can handle the truth that most plastic isn’t actually recycled, lack of regulation is a huge issue, and governmental inaction is largely to blame. Presenting the problem of deforestation and endangered species and then suggesting children can help save those species without naming the real culprits and solutions is irresponsible. 

To whom would you recommend this book?  Recommended to students studying habitats and conservation. 

Who should buy this book?  Some elementary school libraries and public libraries, especially those that study habitats in Science.  

Where would you shelve it ?  577

Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? No

Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City and State: Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School, Dartmouth, MA

Date of review:  April 22, 2024