KEEP OUT! Polar Bear Island by Lindsay Bonilla

WELCOME TO POLAR BEAR ISLAND

NO OTHERS ALLOWED.

Parker Polar Bear, mayor of Polar Bear Island, has a policy. His island is perfect. Their population is just right as it is. But unknown to Parker, his domain is about to have a visitor.

Kirby waddled where the wind blew, and today she was floating toward paradise.

Kirby is a young penguin with wanderlust, and the wind is blowing her floating ice floe toward the beach of a snow-covered island.

Parker stops her at the border.

"Didn't you read the sign? Get out!"

Kirby pleads her case. She's made a long voyage, and Parker relents, allowing her on night on shore.

But while Kirby is rummaging through her luggage, the other polar bears notice something intriguing--her flipper slippers, which double as flipper warmers, and when reversed, as snow shoes.

All the bears want some, too, and Parker soon sets up a veritable Flipper Slipper Factory, helping the bears make their own.

"They're toasty warm and tons of fun!"

Parker is not pleased. Bears are not supposed to wear slippers on their paws.

"Start packing, penguin."

But the citizens of Bear Island protest the deportation, pleading a need for more production of slippers.  Parker bows to the populace and grants Kirby resident status. He add a new phrase to his sign:

WELCOME TO POLAR BEAR ISLAND.
1 PENGUIN AND NO OTHERS ALLOWED.

But the happy hiatus doesn't last long. It seems Kirby has written to her relatives, touting the virtues of the island, and soon four members of her family show up on the beach, unpacking shovels and bed-sleds, creating snow cone flavors, and building snow slides right down to the sea.

Parker pitches a tantrum! He orders all the visitors off the island, but as he's ranting about the interlopers, he slips and falls on the ice. It's penguin paramedics to the rescue, and during his recuperation, Parker discovers the joys of bed-sleds, snow cones, and cozy flipper slippers for himself.

Parker has yet another change of policy:

You penguins weren't taking over our island! You're making it a better place!

Everyone agrees they're better together!

Sharp-eyed readers won't be surprised to spot a recuperated Parker painting a new welcome sign, in Lindsay Bonilla's Polar Bear Island(Sterling Children's Books, 2018) in this little parable of open-mindedness. Artist Cinta Villalobos' illustrations create comic images of a curmugeonly bear, perky inventive penguins, and a busy snow scene that add to the fun of this transformed island.