The Bear

The Bear

Claire Cameron

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): A powerfully suspenseful story 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, 300 pounds of fury, is attacking the family's campsite, 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 dumps the two children on the edge of the woods, and the sister and brother must battle hunger, the elements, and a dangerous wilderness, we see Anna's heartbreaking love for her family -- and her struggle to be brave when nothing in her world seems safe anymore.

Told in the honest, raw voice of five-year-old Anna, this is a riveting story of love, courage, and survival.

Review: Wow, this was a terrifying book, made especially horrifying for me because I was thinking of my six year old daughter and my two year old son being in this same predicament.  The premise of the book is absolutely awful, but yet somehow it was hard to put the book down.  Still, I was glad that it was relatively short so that I could move on to a more cheerful book.

I am not normally a fan of child narrators, but I thought the author did a mostly good job of capturing Anna's five-year-old voice.  Sure, there were times that Anna would use words that a five year old wouldn't really know, and notice things that a five year old would never pay attention to, but overall, she was pretty believable.  I definitely bought into the idea that Anna would try to take care of her two year old brother just like she did. 

I am still sad thinking about this book, even though I read it over two months ago.

Rating: 4 stars