Polar Bear Postman

Milk is the polar bear postmaster of the forest. One day he receives a card that says “Please help!” It is from a red-crested crane couple whose chick has gone missing. Spring gives way to summer and Milk receives another post card—this time from a red-crested crane couple who live in another district telling him that they have been taking care of a lost crane chick and asking for help in finding its family. Milk is modeled on an actual polar bear living in the Kushiro Zoo in Hokkaido, who is so adept at walking erect on his two hind legs that visitors say he looks like a person in a bear suit. The bear is joined in this amusing story by a variety of animal species native to Hokkaido.

Seigo Kijima was born in the eastern Hokkaido city of Kushiro. In 2013, he received the Japan Picture Book Awards Readers’ Prize for the first picture book he illustrated, Kirin ga kuru hi (A New Giraffe). In 2015, he created his first solo picture book, Shirokuma yubinkyoku (Polar Bear Post Office).