27. A Blizzard of Polar Bears by Alice Henderson

#2 Alex Carter

listened on Audible

336 pgs.

2021
Contemporary mystery
Finished around 6/15/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.89
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Canadian Arctic

My comments: It's now months since I read this, and I can't seem to find any notes, although, unlike many books I read a while ago, I still remember portions of it, so I must have been interested in it to a degree, although I only rated it a "3".  It's the reason I rated it a three that I wish I could remember!

Goodreads synopsis: Wildlife biologist Alex Carter is back, fighting for endangered species in the Canadian Arctic and battling for her life in this action-packed follow-up to A Solitude of Wolverines, “a true stunner of a thriller debut” (James Rollins) and “a great read” (Nevada Barr).

Fresh off her wolverine study in Montana, wildlife biologist Alex Carter lands a job studying a threatened population of polar bears in the Canadian Arctic. Embedded with a small team of Arctic researchers, she tracks the majestic bears by air, following them over vast, snowy terrain, spending days leaning precariously out of a helicopter with a tranquilizer gun, until she can get down on the ice to examine them up close.

But as her study progresses, and she gathers data on the health of individual bears, things start to go awry. Her helicopter pilot quits unexpectedly, equipment goes missing, and a late-night intruder breaks into her lab and steals the samples she’s collected. She realizes that someone doesn’t want her to complete her study, but Alex is not easily deterred.

Managing to find a replacement pilot, she returns to the icy expanses of Hudson Bay. But the helicopter catches fire in midflight, forcing the team to land on a vast sheet of white far from civilization. Surviving on the frozen landscape is difficult enough, but as armed assailants close in on snowmobiles, Alex must rely on her skills and tenacity to survive this onslaught and carry out her mission.

Winston of Churchill - Jean Davies Okimoto

One Bear's Battle Against Global Warming
Illustrator: Jeremiah Trammell
Copyright: 2007
Rating: 4.5
For: Older kids
Endpapers: Lots of happy polar bears carrying signs: Wind Power, Walk, Ride Bikes, Make Less Garbage, Save Our Home, Recycle, Ice is Nice, Pass Up Gas, Solar Power, Turn off Stuff, Turn Down the Furnace, Brrrr is Best, Save Trees....
Green Earth Book Award

Winston, a great white polar bear of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada is concerned about global warming and the loss of ice in his home territory. He calls the bears together (even the teenager bears with spiked green fur, leather spike bracelets and tattoos) to give them all a copy of his book Why It's Getting Hotter. It gives a good explanation for older kids. They then decide to protest - with signs - when the tourist tundra buggy comes by the next day. So we meet a number of tourists and see what they see when they approach the polar bears.

At the end of the book, as a prologue, is an extra explanation about the plight of the polar bears and a bit about Winston Churchill, prime minister of England from 1940 to 1945, our Winston's namesake.

I like the illustrations a lot. The bears are bursting with personality.