#12 Polar Bears Past Bedtime

A snowy owl led Jack and Annie to the tree house, where Morgan handed them a scroll for a riddle and a book titled ¡°Adventure in the Arctic.¡± When they got to the Arctic, the air was crisp and cold. They unrolled the scroll and read it. ¡°I cover what¡¯s real and hide what¡¯s true. But sometimes I bring out the courage in you. What am I?¡±

The Artic Tundra is a treeless plain. During the winter, the sun never rises, and during the summer, the snow and ice melt and the sun never sets. It was early spring there. When Jack and Annie almost froze to death, a seal hunter came to the tree house. He said that he was dreaming about Jack and Annie in the tree house. He came with his Siberian Huskies and a dogsled. He handed sealskin clothing to Jack and Annie. Jack and Annie got on the dogsled run by Siberian Huskies and the sealhunter ran alongside the sled to his igloo. Igloo means house. The house was built with blocks of snow. It could keep heat inside the house. He showed two woodenmasks of polar bear for a special ceremonies. He made them. Ancient Arctic people honored the spirit of the polar bear. Because the polar bear taught them how to live in the ice and snow and even fly.

Jack and Annie went outside of the igloo and played with two polar bear cubs sliding down from the snowbank. But soon Jack and Annie got stuck in the cracking ice. Two cubs made little crying sound. Their mother polar heard it and came to save her cubs. Jack and Annie wore the masks of the polar bear. On the cracking ice, the mother bear was balancing with her hour legs stretched out on the ice like flying position. The polar bear could balance on the ice too thin to hold a person. Jack and Annie copied the bear and felt like a flying polar bear. The mother polar bear showed how to slide on the ice. Amazingly, there was no cracking sound. Jack felt something even stranger. He felt like a flying polar bear. He realized that why Arctic people said they learned how to fly from polar bears. They were finally safe thanks to the mother polar bear. Then in the sky, an amazing northern light appeared. After the polar bears left, howling filled the night as the sled came into view. The sealhunter thought Jack and Annie were lost. While they told him how to be safe from the cracking ice, they found the answer to the riddle, ¡°A Mask!¡± They returned to the tree house, there was another riddle to solve. ¡°Discover the place you love the best using the first letters of the four answers they had found through their four trips.¡± It was ¡°home¡±. When they got back in Frog Creek Pennsylvania, Morgan gave them a Master Librarian card.