By Marissa GOULD, intern

It was an energetic crowd that greeted author Sarah Louise Kras at the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffee House on Sunday afternoon. Kras was at the bookstore debuting her new book, “The Hunted Polar Prey.” Kras typically writes non-fiction but decided to try her hand at a children’s story after doing research for a previous book. That research led her to look up polar bears and, well, she kind of got hooked on them.

To research polar bears further, Kras and her husband flew to the town of Churchill near the Hudson Bay in Canada. There they studied 25 polar bears as they ate, slept and hunted. She explained to the enthusiastic audience basic polar bear anatomy, their hunting techniques, and their diet – which sometimes includes humans.

In fact, it was this that inspired Kras to write “The Hunted Polar Prey.” The book tells the story of a 12-year-old boy named Jeremy who lives with his parents out in the tundra. His parents work at a global warming research facility. One day his mother gets split off from the mainland and is stuck on an iceberg. She radios the research facility to tell Jeremy what has happened. Meanwhile, a hungry polar bear is stalking her.

At Sunday’s event, attendees were enthralled as Kras read out loud the first two chapters of her book “The Hunted Polar Prey,” which is on sale at the bookstore now.

  Marissa GOULD