The Seekers: the quest begins by Erin Hunter

This author has two series from which I have reviewed books. The other was the Warrior series, about a society of cats. This series, The Seekers, is about bears. There are stories about three bears in this starter to the series. A polar bear cub, a grizzly cub and a black bear cub. A few chapters into the book, I was close to tossing it in the tub when I got out to dry off. I couldn't tell if this was just a way to point out the hopelessness of humanity, or just the inevitable awfulness of life in general. Global warming is melting the polar ice caps, and the polar bears are suffering greatly, then the momma bear gets eaten by killer whales, leaving her two cubs to fend for themselves- on separate ice shelves as the ice is melting too rapidly for proper polar bear life. The grizzly mom loses one cub to some degenerating disease (brought on by living too close to the thoughtless, toxic human race) and then in despair, abandons her other, healthy cub. The black bear cub is born and raised in captivity, but longs for freedom and escapes to the wild. Okay, well, I did get caught up in the drama eventually. AFTER I decided not to go all Plath. The thing is, they're pretty cool adventure stories, but drowning in angst. Do we put this on the kids, figuring they won't get the depressing theme, but will thrill to the adventures of the scrappy little bears? Or, do we not submerge them in the "horrible humans" mantra? I kinda think maybe Pooh is a better bear to love.