A powerful suspense novel narrated by a young girl who must fend for
herself and her little brother after a brutal bear attack.
While camping with her family on a remote island, five-year-old Anna
awakes in the night to the sound of her mother screaming. A rogue black
bear, three hundred pounds of fury, is attacking the family's campsite
-- and pouncing on her parents as prey.
At her dying mother's faint urging, Anna manages to get her brother into
the family's canoe and paddle away. But when the canoe runs aground on
the edge of the woods, the sister and brother must battle hunger, the
elements, and a wilderness alive with danger. Lost and completely alone,
they find that their only hope resides in Anna's heartbreaking love for
her family, and her struggle to be brave when nothing in her world seems
safe anymore.
This is a story with a small narrator and a big heart. Cameron
gracefully plumbs Anna's young perspective on family, responsibility,
and hope, charting both a tragically premature loss of innocence and a
startling evolution as Anna reasons through the impossible situations
that confront her.
Lean and confident, and told in the innocent and honest voice of a
five-year-old, The Bear is a transporting tale of loss -- but also a
poignant and surprisingly funny adventure about love and the raw
instincts that enable us to survive.
