Don't Bring Rupert To The Beach is a children's picture book by Christer Hägglund. Rupert is a polar bear living a quiet humdrum life in the cold north. One day, he falls asleep while fishing and wakes up to find himself in an unfamiliar land full of sand. Soon, he meets a jaguar named Dot, who introduces Rupert to his home, a warm sandy beach the likes of which Rupert had never seen before. Feeling warm, Rupert wishes to go back home. Dot is ready to help his friend find his way back. Dot teaches him how to sail, and soon, the two friends arrive in the cold north. While Rupert feels at home, Dot struggles to cope with the cold. Now, it's Dot's turn to head back home. But this is not a goodbye, only a see you later, between the two forever friends.

A heartwarming tale about friendship between two people from wildly different backgrounds, Don't Bring Rupert To The Beach is an engaging picture book children are bound to find endearing. Author Christer Hägglund brings a fun-filled sense of adventure and joy to the story that you can't help but love. Rupert and Dot are adorable characters, and their friendship and interactions just melt your heart, leaving you in awe. The drawings add a lot of color to the story and make it very appealing to readers, especially kids. I absolutely loved Don't Bring Rupert To The Beach and encourage parents to introduce it to their kids.

Don't Bring Rupert to the Beach by Christer Hägglund is a children's picture book centered around a polar bear named Rupert and an unexpected adventure he finds himself on. The book begins with an introduction to Rupert's northern home, a tundra of snow and ice that he loves. Rupert spends his days doing things like fishing, which is such hard work that one night when he fell asleep, his ice floe drifted off into the ocean. When Rupert awakes, he is on the shore of a tropical beach and is confused about the sand and heat. A friendly jaguar named Dot joins him on the beach and tells Rupert about his own climate and way of living. The pair bond and their friendship endures even at a distance.

Don't Bring Rupert to the Beach is a cute little children's book and is extremely simply written for the earliest readers. Christer Hägglund's story is fun but, as is the case with most children's picture books, it is the artwork that is the star of this story. The illustrations have an element of whimsy to them and incorporate mild abstract sketching with a cool, soft palette of muted color tones that gravitate between watercolor and colored pencils. It's unique and fresh and extremely soothing, especially since Rupert and Dot were brought into an evening's bedtime routine. The theme of different being good and homes being perfect for those who live there, even if others don't feel the same way, is one of acceptance and opening oneself up to experiencing something new. Overall, this is a comfortable read and has been requested for the second night in a row. Recommended.

A polar bear unintentionally goes on an adventure in the children's book Don't Bring Rupert to the Beach by Christer Hägglund. Rupert the polar bear has a fulfilling life in the cold North as a good fisherman and sleeping on chunks of ice. On this one occasion, Rupert is so tired that he does not notice that his chunk of ice has taken him out to sea. Dot, a jaguar who lives on the beach Rupert lands on, is quick to point out everything that's amazing about his island home. Rupert misses home and as Dot helps him find a way back and the way to extend their relationship is invented, that's when the adventure and friendship truly begin.

It's sometimes hard for young children to imagine life in other climates, especially when they have lived their entire three years of life in a city. Even more difficult to imagine are friendships that are thousands of miles apart, which Christer Hägglund makes the theme of Don't Bring Rupert to the Beach. This is a children's picture book and so the illustrations take up more page space than text, as it should, and its endearing artistry shows Rupert in cool whites and blues and Dot in vibrant oranges and greens. The story opened up a conversation about friendship at a distance, although my tiny audience of one was also interested in whether or not Rupert lives near Santa. This is a cute, well-written, and lovely to look at work of kid-lit.

Rupert loves the snow and the cold, and he loves to fish. One day, a very exhausted Rupert fell asleep on his ice floe and floated out to sea. When he woke up, he found himself in a very warm place. And the snow looked and felt different. He makes a new friend, Dot, a jaguar, who introduces Rupert to his snow, which he calls sand. Realizing Rupert is unhappy in the heat, Dot suggests they use Dot’s boat to find Rupert’s snow. It’s quite the adventure, but they soon discover that Dot finds Rupert’s home “very, very, very cold…” Best friends though they are, they soon realize that they can’t live close together. They’d have to build a friendship across a long distance.

Christer Hägglund’s picture book story, Don’t Bring Rupert To The Beach, is a sweet story for the very young. Using simple language and sentence structure, the plot follows Rupert as he ventures far from home. Young readers will learn about polar bears and jaguars and the type of environment they live in. The story also teaches about differences and accepting differences, about equity and inclusion, all in a simple story, one sentence per page. The pastel-colored illustrations are soothing and comforting, which suits the mood of this friendship-induced story. Even separated by long distances, true friends can still connect and learn from one another as their friendship grows and blossoms. I particularly love the message in the bottle idea and connecting the ‘old fashioned’ way through long, lengthy, newsy, hand-written letters. It reminds me of another era when penpals were quite the fad.