Polar Bear Postman

Milk is the polar bear postmaster of the forest. One day he receives a card that is actually addressed to him. "Please help!” it says. It is from a red-crested crane couple whose chick has gone missing. Milk makes the rounds of the forest, telling the woodland creatures about the missing crane chick and asking for their help in finding the baby. Spring gives way to summer and Milk receives another post card--this time from a red-crested crane couple who live in another district telling him that they have been taking care of a lost crane chick and asking for help in finding its family. The chick is reunited with its parents, and they live happily ever after. Milk is modeled on an actual polar bear living in the Kushiro Zoo in Hokkaido, who is so adept at walking erect on his two hind legs that visitors say he looks like a person in a bear suit. The idea for the book was born when author Seigo Kijima wondered what that polar bear might be like as a postman. The bear is joined in this amusing story by a variety of animal species native to Hokkaido.