Santoso (I Don't Like Koala) creates gauzy backgrounds featuring the city skyline and the zoo's greenery, and his slightly anthropomorphic bears convey a wealth of feeling through their expressive eyes, smiles, and body language. The description of Ida's passing is brief, poignant, and gentle, as is Gus's adjustment to life without his best friend. Levis's characterization of caring, supportive friends is spot on the bears give each other "a moment alone" when needed, and express how much they'll miss each other. Then one sad day, Gus learns that Ida is very sick, and she isn’t going to get. Echoing the stages of grief, the friends stomp and snarl upon learning the bad news, then come to an exhausted, quiet acceptance as they begin to share Ida's dwindling time. Gus lives in a big park in the middle of an even bigger city, and he spends his days with Ida. In Levis's soothing narrative, Ida will always be with Gus, because, as Ida told him,'You don't have to see it to feel it.' The polar bears are sweetly and expressively drawn, and the sky, clouds, shadows, sunshine and rain in Australian illustrator Charles Santoso's ( I Don't Like Koala ) softly luminous digital paintings all beautifully. Polar bears Ida and Gus spend their days playing, splashing, and listening to the sounds of the city, but everything changes when Ida becomes terminally ill. Inspired by two polar bears that lived in New York City's Central Park Zoo several years ago, Levis (Stuck with the Blooz) takes readers on a reassuring emotional journey that explores friendship, love, and loss.
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