Polar Bear Patrol (The Magic School Bus Chapter Book, #13) by Judith Bauer Stamper

Polar Bear Patrol (The Magic School Bus Chapter Book, #13) Reviews

• 
  QNPoohBear

  3.5 stars
  
  This is a chapter book version of the popular
  Joanna Cole's Magic School Bus series with black and white line drawing illustrations. The premise is similar to the Magic Tree House but the reading level is a step up from Tree House. It's longer and more scientific which I greatly appreciate.
  
  The book covers animals of the arctic, particularly babies and baby polar bears. Tim is doing a project on baby polar bears but can't find much about BABY polar bears in the library. As luck with have it, a scientist with the Polar Bear Research Station in the North Pole is doing a live Q&A during the school day today. Miss Frizzle allows Tim to chat with the scientist. Tim not only gets the answers to his questions but it turns out Miss Frizzle and Luke Igluik are old friends and the class is invited to visit the North Pole. They hop in the magic school bus and head off on an arctic adventure they'll never forget.
  
  I had some concerns at first because the kids approach baby animals to take pictures but they are told not to get too close because they might scare them. I also had concerns about the frequent use of the word igloo but lack of explanation about where the word comes from. Never fear, I was merely impatient! The story takes a really long time before the class gets to the research station. Luke Igluik is Inuit and explains the origin of the word igloo which just means house vs. igluvigak which means "ice house". Dr. Luke explains how he likes to carry on the old ways as much as possible and exolains how to build an ice house. (Helpful for Arnold who tried it out of ice cubes).
  
  My next concerns involved a polar bear cub separated from its mother accidentially and the magic school bus suddenly turning into a dog sled.
  
  I didn't like the illustrations. The picture books are so much fun! Each one requires concentration to see what's happening and they're so colorful and fun. My favorite illustration was always on the last page when Miss Frizzle changes her dress. Then the reader is clued in as to the next book in the series. Black and white drawings are just kind of blah. It works well for the notebook pages but otherwise this style doesn't do justice to the brand.
  
  I don't think this will encourage kids to want to visit the North Pole and rescue baby polar bears! They're clear about the danger and the cold and staying away from animals. It also mentions (briefly) caribou and oil don't mix- environmentalists are concerned about drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be harmful to the Arctic animals that live there. The book was published in2002 and doesn't mention climate change.
  
  Overall though, this book is jam packed with facts. I learned a few things from the kids' reports and Dr. Luke. It's worth a read for kids who are into Magic Tree House and early chapter books. My nephew wasn't interested and didn't read it.
  
  Funny note on the datedness of the story. Upon return to the classroom, as they prepare their reports, one of the kids who took pictures announces she got her pictures back. While my brothers kids will find this normal (my brother is an artist photographer), my sister's kids would have no clue what that means!
• 
  Cora

  Per my second graders: I loved the polar bear because they were funny. I love it because the dogs were running with their class. I liked it because the teacher brought snacks. It was amazing because they found a baby polar bear. I liked it because the baby polar bear was cute.
• 
  Kaotic

  "Ms. Frizzle typed in a message:
  We're on our way, Luke. See you there, bear!
  
  Luke wrote back:
  Will do, Caribou!"
  
  Another fantastic volume in the Magic School Bus series. It's educational, thrilling, and adventuring.
  
  Kids books have quite the magic to them, between the charcater development and the art.
  
  I would like to note that Ms. Frizzle rode a yellow motorcycle when she was in college (stated in the book.)
  
  I also like the theory that Ms. Ftizzle is secretly River Song from Doctor Who. The way she handles the dangerous situations in the book helped reinforce that theory for me.
  
  A really great read.
• 
  Samantha Osborne

  A really good read you learn about artic animals
• 
  Cheryl

  I am truly not the target audience. I liked the original magic school house when I was watching it with my child, but reading even these longer books is not satisfactory on my own, because I've been learning all this stuff all along. The only thing that I didn't know from this is that one momma bear stood up to swat at a helicopter that she perceived as too near her cubs.
• 
  Melissa Namba

  this was a great book for kids. i loved that it didn't mince the facts and hide that polar bears are predators, that kill adorable seals. there were a lot of facts and animals discussed, including lemmings!
• 
  Dolly

  We've read all of the
  Magic School Bus picture-books that we can find and now we're working our way through the
  Magic School Bus chapter books too. We just love the Friz and her class; the characters feel like old friends to us.
  
  This story takes us on a trip to the Arctic for a polar expedition. The kids see all kinds of animals, get to ride on a dog sled and sleep in an igloo. This tale has more danger and drama than some of the other stories, but still keeps in line with the series overall. I thought the description of how the igloos are built was interesting - it's a little different than I thought. I think we all learned a little about the arctic by reading this book.
  
  We enjoyed reading this book together and we will certainly look for more of the books in this series at our local library.
• 
  Danny

  I liked this book a lot because I learned a lot of information about polar bears.
• 
  Hillvan

  460L