With A Little Help From My Friends: The Polar Bear Wish by Lori Evert

Long, long ago, so high in the mountains and close to the stars that on a clear night you don't need a lantern, lived an adventurous girl named Anya.

It is almost Christmas, and little Anya wishes for a sled for her dog Birki to to take her to the big Christmas party, which promises games and dances and treats. And when her cousin Erik appears with his sled pulled by his dog Bria, Anya happily hitches Birki up with Bria, and the two are off through the snowy Scandinavian scene. But a sudden blizzard strands the two children, where they are led by friendly wolves to shelter overnight in the storm.

To add to their problems, a little polar bear named Tiny appears, lost from his mother, and Anya and Eric are diverted from their journey to reunite the little bear with his family, a magical trek through fantastic icy fjords to a ice palace where they rest overnight. But can they find Tiny's mother and still make it to the Christmas party?

In true fantasy fiction style, they do. Mother Bear and Tiny are reunited, and Anya and Eric feast and dance through the long Arctic night, in Lori Evert's second book, The Polar Bear Wish (A Wish Book) (Random House, 2018). Although Per Breiehagen's striking Nordic photos of his and Evert's own daughter are as charmingly appealing as in their earlier The Reindeer Wish (Wish Series), there's a bit of cognitive dissonance between the realistic photos and the fantastical storyline--offset a little by the trusty old ambivalent ending in which Anya awakes in her own bed ...

...to wonder if it all was a dream....

And for those who dote on truly snowy Scandinavian Christmas images, share this new one with Jan Brett's famous folkloric artwork in her The Three Snow Bears and The Wild Christmas Reindeer.