Patrick and Flippa
Wendy Meddour and Merle Goll
Oxford Children’s Books

Best friends Patrick, a polar bear, and Flippa, a seal, love to watch the clouds together. Each day Flippa dives into the ice cold sea to catch juicy fish for Patrick to fill his tummy. However, despite having a full tummy, Patrick is suffering from an empty-bear feeling, so he tells Flippa. The trouble is that he thinks Flippa is overly dominating: why should she always be the one in charge never allowing Patrick to make his own decisions?

Following some disagreeable words between the two, Patrick stomps off, but to his surprise he feels no better. A snow fox comes along, stops and offers some wise words to the polar bear. Patrick decides to follow the fox’s advice; he plunges into the sea and for the very first time, catches his own fishy meal.

Unbeknown to the polar bear, Flippa has been watching and admits that she was already aware that Patrick could fish, going on to explain her reason for being so over-bearing. Of course being besties, the two talk things over, make up and all ends happily.

With themes of friendship and boundary setting, Wendy Meddour’s gently humorous story in combination with Merle Goll’s equally humorous scenes that convey the changing feelings of the two characters, make a read aloud tale that offers a good starting point for discussion with young children.