The Ice's Edge: The Story of a Harp Seal Pup

by Karen Romano Young, Brian Shaw (Illustrator)

On the pack ice off the coast of Labrador, Little Harp Seal is born under a cloudy March sky. His home os fraught with danger. Little Harp Seal's fluffy fur hides him from prowling polar bears. But, as he grows, his mother will leave him and his fur will turn gray. Little Harp Seal will be all alone, and he will have to learn to hunt and defend himself from polar bears.

Genres: Childrens

31 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Karen Romano Young is the author of young adult novels as well as nonfiction books and magazine articles. Although Small Worlds: Maps and Mapmaking is her first book for Scholastic, she has contributed to Scholastic magazines for the past twenty years. Her other credits include Cricket, National Geographic World, and The Guinness Book of World Records.

Member: Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Authors Guild, National Marine Educators Association.

Honors Awards: Smithsonian Best Book Award, and Oppenheimer Toy Portfolio Gold Medal, both 2002, both for Small Worlds: Maps and Mapmaking.

Reviews

[Alexandra]

For an older book, it holds up well with the information it gives. I love the Smithsonian kids collection because it gives enough information for learning to not overwhelm a little one. Seals are so cute and this book helps my littles learn.

[Peacegal]

Perhaps no animal greater symbolizes the global animal advocacy movement than the newborn harp seal pup—innocent, defenseless, and vulnerable in his icy home. Thoughts of the harp seal and indelibly tied to thoughts of Canada’s mass-scale seal “hunt” (and I use the term loosely)—the largest slaughter of marine mammals in the world.

As The Ice’s Edge is written for a juvenile audience, sealing not mentioned in the text. That’s understandable. Even without including the harp seals’ full story, I believe that learning about animals increases a person’s concern and respect for them.

My concern about The Ice’s Edge has to do with a small paragraph at the conclusion, directed toward educators and parents. I found it tremendously misleading:

“For two hundred years, newborn harp seals were hunted for their fluffy white coats, until commercial hunting of “white coats” was banned in 1988 after a public outcry.”

A person might reasonably deduce from that statement that Canada’s years of clubbing seals to death are behind them. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. In recent years, the seal hunt has quietly expanded to larger than ever before—with over a million seals killed in the past five years alone. And while the completely white newborns are protected from the kill, at less than two weeks old they can become fair game. Humane Society International states:

[A]s soon as they begin to shed their white coats – as young as 12 days of age – these baby seals can be legally hunted by sealers. In fact, fully 97 percent of the seals killed in the commercial seal hunt over the past five years have been less than 3 months of age—and most were one month old or less.

The inclusion of a misleading statement mars what is otherwise a fine nature education book.

[Andy]

Cute, small book about the life of a harp seal. Good illustrations and easy for kids to understand.