One thing which i really like about this book - The Last polar Bears, is the way the story is written and the great illustration work. This book is written for children and how i came across this book is another story. But what i want to say here is the story behind this.To my suprise, the author and the illustrator is the same person.
I really enjoyed reading this story book for there are interesting characters. Like roo, a dog which is very human like. She can even talk, whine and complain. This story is about the adventure of a Grandfather and his dog, roo, to the Artic searching for the polar bears. Yea, the story is written for children so the storyline is rather simple. But the story ended abruptly. So the question that linger on my mind was did the grandfather die? my guess was he did. But i was determined to find out. So yesterday, i went online and searched. And I got more info than i intended.
Firstly, I found the autobiography of the author. Something that strucked me was that he died only last year at the tender age of 47. After doing more research, i found his blog. He is dead but his friends continuing update his blog. The next thing i know is that he died with his wife. Weird i thought. At first i wanted to leave comment and ask about how he died. But decided to find it myself.
Here comes my discovery. His wife was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and hers was rather aggressive. It's a terminal illness. So, he was desperate for help and stuff like that. In the end, he killed his wife and himself and he made quite a headline in Shetland. Some news reported it as suicide pact, saying they both commited suicide so that they could die together. kinda like Romeo and Juliet. But later on, one news reported saying that he actually stabbed his wife 30 times. Ouch! He did said to the press that if his wife dies he will go with her as well. That explains things. He loved his wife too much so he didn't want to get separated with his wife. So he killed his beloved and himself.
Whoa! I really found more than i had in mind. So, is it a murder or suicide pact? Judge it for yourself. What i know is that, he has really interesting background and he wrote one of the nicest stories.
Oh yeah, the grandfather did die. My guess was correct. In the midst of finding his background i found one line which said that he wrote this story for children who is coping with loss. So that explains. I highly recommend this story. It's really funny and yet interesting. Plus roo really existed. An Art work i will call it.
