The story

Something enormous, hidden inside one smell

A new smell comes riding on the breeze, salty and cold, and touches the small black nose of Nanu, a polar bear cub walking beside his mother across bright spring snow. “Follow it carefully,” she tells him, “and your nose will tell you more.”

So the whole day becomes one long, delicious guessing game. A very large snowy bird? A whole hill made of salt? His mother knows the answer and keeps it, letting him gather it himself, layer by layer: salt, wet stone, cold water, living things far away, and at last a low hush beyond the snow that rises and softens and rises again.

Follow it carefully, and your nose will tell you more.

Nanu and the New Smell. A Little Wilds story. For every little explorer.

The Sniff Check · call it with him

EN “Sniff, sniff... the nose knows.”

Two quick rabbit-sniffs, a tap of your own nose, and say it with him every time the trail gets stronger: on the bright morning snow, at the wind-shaped ridge, on the climb up the last hill. At the den mouth it splits in two, Nanu murmuring “Sniff, sniff” and his mother finishing it for him.

Close-up of Nanu's face nearly filling the frame, eyes closed with effort, black nose crinkled mid-sniff, a puff of breath-steam hanging silver in the cold.

Page 03

“Sniff, sniff... the nose knows,” Nanu said. A polar bear’s nose can find a smell from far across the snow and ice, much farther than his eyes can see.

One tiny detective, hard at work on the biggest mystery of his life.

Midday light streaming through the outer hairs of Nanu's coat so they glow nearly clear, like fine glass threads, warmth sinking toward the dark skin beneath.

Page 06

“His fur looked white, but each hair was nearly clear, so the sunshine slipped right through and warmed the dark skin underneath.”

“My fur is wearing sunshine,” Nanu says on the very next page.

A long sculpted ridge of wind-shaped snow curving through the frame, loose snow smoking off the crest, Nanu leaning over it mid-sniff with his eyes shining.

Page 08

Sniff, sniff... the nose knows. The scent grew stronger near a line of wind-shaped snow. Nanu guessed, “A very large snowy bird?”

Guess number one. His mother only smiles and says, “Larger.”

Nanu frozen mid-stride with one wide paw lifted, both small round ears swiveled forward toward a low hush beyond the snow, his mother calm beside him.

Page 12

“At the second ridge, Nanu could hear a low hush beyond the snow. It rose, softened, and rose again.”

“The smell has a sound,” he whispers on the next page.

Shot past Nanu's shoulder at the hilltop as the horizon opens, a strip of deep sapphire sliding into view beyond the last snow and widening past both edges of the frame.

Page 15

“The horizon opened slowly as they reached the top. First Nanu saw a strip of deep blue. Then it widened farther than any snowfield he had known.”

A brand-new world, one step wide.

The snow den's entrance glowing soft blue-violet in the twilight, Nanu murmuring sleepily at the threshold while his mother curls her great body close around him.

Page 21

“Sniff, sniff,” Nanu murmured at the den entrance. “The nose knows,” his mother answered, curling close around him.

The refrain finished in two voices, at the door of the warm den.

The nose knows, long before the eyes do

One smell, all the way to the sea

A polar bear’s nose can find a smell from far across the snow and ice, much farther than his eyes can see. So Nanu walks into the breeze and lets the mystery arrive in layers, salt, wet stone, cold water, living things far away, until the last hill opens and the answer is bigger than any snowfield he has known.

Ground-skimming shot of Nanu's wide furry paws spreading flat on the soft crust like built-in snowshoes, his mother's huge prints leading on ahead. — Into the breeze

wide paws like built-in snowshoes

Nanu placing careful wide-footed steps up the tilted snow of the last hill, his mother's flank a steady cream wall right beside him, their two trails braided below. — Careful, wide-footed steps

never leaving his mother's side

The mother bear bending her great head down beside Nanu at the hill's edge, low warm light gilding both faces as she looks with him across the breathing sea. — The whole sea, inside one smell

“Your nose brought you to it”

“A polar bear’s nose can find a smell from far across the snow and ice, much farther than his eyes can see.”

True on every page

One real fact per page

Checked by hand, woven into the story, never a bare label. Three from Nanu’s day:

“A polar bear’s nose can find a smell from far across the snow and ice, much farther than his eyes can see.”

Page 3. To a bear, the whole white world is a map of smells.

“Nanu’s wide paws spread his weight like built-in snowshoes, so he stayed on top of the soft crust instead of sinking in.”

Page 4. Clever feet make the long walk possible.

“Each hair was nearly clear, so the sunshine slipped right through and warmed the dark skin underneath.”

Page 6. Polar bear fur only looks white, and the skin beneath it is dark.

Two sizes, two languages

Two sizes. Two languages.

Dos tamaños. Dos idiomas.

The same page, two ways. One tap on the front page sets the size, and every one of the twenty-one stories follows, art and chants unchanged. El español is in final translation; it isn’t finished until it reads aloud as warmly as the English.

Big kids · 5–12 · English

“Sniff, sniff... the nose knows,” Nanu said. A polar bear’s nose can find a smell from far across the snow and ice, much farther than his eyes can see.

Little · 2–5 · English

“Sniff, sniff... the nose knows,” says Nanu. A bear’s nose can smell things far, far away.

The very same page from Nanu and the New Smell · page 3 of 22

“This sea is part of our home. Tomorrow, when the water is calm, we will swim together.”

Warm in the den beside his mother, the sea’s hush still in his ears, he dreams of blue water waiting for tomorrow. Goodnight, little nose. Goodnight, warm den and far blue sea.

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Meet all seven little wilds