The Polar Bear and the Ballerina

How does a bear go to the ballet? A polar bear escapes into New York City in this heartfelt picture book from award-winning Afro-Latino artist Eric Velasquez.

A wordless story of unlikely friendship that celebrates art and its ability to connect us. However, this picture book also opens a conversation about alienation and empathy. Who is kept out of the theater? How can we welcome them in? A deeply personal story, author Eric Valqueuez sees himself in this tale.

When dancers have a photoshoot at the Central Park Zoo, a young, African American ballerina and a polar bear form a special friendship. When his new friend leaves her scarf behind, the polar bear must venture through Central Park and out into Manhattan to return it before her performance at the Lincoln Center.

However, the theater goers eye the strange bear with suspicion. When the ushers won’t let him inside, the ballerina comes to his rescue and welcomes him in. The polar bear has dreamed of seeing the ballet, and now he gets to be a part of it in the most surprising way.

The wordless narrative is told through expressive and detailed oil paintings. On the endpapers, readers learn more about these loveable characters with illustrations of zoo signage about polar bears and a magazine article about the young ballerina.

Eric Velasquez, author-illustrator of Bank Street Best Book of the Year Octopus Stew, brings a dream-like magic to this tale of empathy and kindred spirits.

Eric Velasquez’s awards include the John Steptoe / Coretta Scott King Award for new talent, a Pura Belpré Award, an NAACP ImageAward, and a Carter G. Woodson Award. For Holiday House, he both wrote and illustrated Looking for Bongo, and he illustrated Ol’Clip-Clop: A Ghost Story by Patricia C.McKissack (Anne Izard Storyteller’s Choice Award Winner, Georgia Children’s Book Award, Bank Street Best Children’s Book of theYear--Outstanding Merit) and New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer (Jane Addams Peace Association Children’s Book Award, Bank StreetBest Children’s Book of the Year, New York State Reading Association Charlotte Award). The son of Afro-Puerto Rican parents who encouraged music and storytelling, Eric grew up in Spanish Harlem, New York. As a child, he loved superheroes, comics and drawing, much like the boy in Octopus Stew. He teaches illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology and lives in New York