A bilingual edition of Little Polar Bear– Where are you going, Lars? in English and Ukrainian is available as a digital book for free. NorthSouth Books has been offering bilingual picture books in collaboration with Edition bi:libri since 2019. The English-Ukrainian Little Polar Bear version is the newest addition to this series and it’s our response to the devastating war in the Ukraine. This project is close to the heart of author Hans de Beer as well as everyone involved.
Where are you going, Lars?
Lars, the little polar bear, lives on the North Pole in the middle of ice and snow. One day Lars drifts away on an ice floe and ends up far from his home in the middle of the tropics. There he discovers the most unusual plants and animals, and quickly makes friends with a kindly hippo. But soon the little polar bear gets homesick for his snow-covered home. With the help of his new friends, Lars makes the long journey back to the North Pole.
Little Polar Bear– Where are you going, Lars?
Bi:libri English–Ukrainian
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4533-6
Now online for free
The digital version is available free for educators, librarians, and families. Access the book here. We hope Ukrainian children will find a friend in Lars.
Language is the key to integration and acceptance
“Bilingual children’s books not only support the development of both languages of a bilingual child, they also signal an appreciation of everyone’s languages.”
–Kristy Koth, Managing Director, Edition Bi:libri
“With this bilingual edition, we want to support educators and volunteers in their work helping Ukrainian refugee children. We think that Little Polar Bear is the perfect book for this initiative as he embarks on a long journey and finds new friends along the way. We hope that Ukrainian children who are expelled from their homeland by the war will find a friend in Lars.”
-Riky Stock, Managing Director, NorthSouth Books
“Lars embarks on a long journey, finds new friends far away and ends up happily back home with mom and dad. Hans de Beer and I, we will be happy when many Ukrainian children, driven from their homeland by the war, find a friend in Lars.”
–Herwig Bitsche, Publisher, NorthSouth Books and NordSüd Verlag
This project is supported by
Artist Hans de Beer. Hans de Beer was born in 1957 in Muiden, near Amsterdam. His dissertation on Lars, the little polar bear, gained him international success and countless awards, and it has so far been translated into thirty languages. Today he lives as a freelance illustrator with his partner, an Italian illustrator, and they have homes in Amsterdam and just outside Florence.
Edition bi:libri. Based in Germany, Edition bi:libri is one of the first publishers in Germany to focus entirely on specialized in multilingual children’s books.
NorthSouth Books and our Swiss parent company NordSüd Verlag. NorthSouth Books is known for publishing high-quality children’s books created by authors and illustrators from around the world for more than 30 years.
If you have any questions, please contact Riky Stock.
(Riky.Stock@northsouth.com, 917-699-2079)
Download the full press release here.