Bear and Fox

– The Northern Trail

Bear wants to go ice fishing but the lake won’t freeze. Winters aren’t as cold as they used to be. But his friend, Fox, has an idea…

The story about a bear trying to find snow begun after I drew a lonely polar bear for an article on  the extinction of species for the Helsinki University magazine. Another illustration I made for them was on the endeavour of conservation of the endangered Saimaa ringed seal in Eastern Finland. The animal needs snow to build a nest for its pups and volunteers help by shoveling it on their nests. Even transferring seals to a lake in Lapland was suggested.

An article in Helsingin Sanomat newspaper described how  birds in Finland migrate every year 1,6 km north. At the same time there was a lot of discussion on human migration and its root cause being the climate change.

I wanted to create a story about adapting to change and striving to build a better life for everyone together. Animals cannot do much to change the warming climate and I didn’t want to make the children’s story too gloomy.

The story of Bear and Fox was first published as a Finnish sticker book in 2018, and a picture book in 2019 in Finnish and Estonian. The story is also adapted to Saame, a Lapp indigenous Saami people language, as an ebook and a mobile game.

I hope you enjoy reading my story of the adventure of Bear and his forest animal friends!

– ULLA SAINIO
author, illustrator

Images from the book Bear and Fox – The Northern Trail © Ulla Sainio 2019