Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

Problems?
Ideas?
Suggestions?
Please email BudNotBuddy@aol.com

Thank You!

"The old she bear had been there for three days already, called by the cold to ready her den for winter. Hauling out great mounds of earth and rock, she dug a tunnel down into the half-frozen mountainside.
"The grizzly dug until the sky could no longer see the tiny tuck of her tail. Then she began to widen the base of the tunnel. The den was snug, with just enough room to twist and roll, the roof held fast by a tangle of tree roots. The old she tore up great mouthfuls of bear grass and heather and lay it as a thick blanket barrier against the ice-cold den floor."

Back in the days when I'd M.C. a couple of daily preschool circle times, we'd often "do" a few repetitions of Sleeping Bears. You "do" Sleeping Bears by getting the kids to all lean over, eyes closed, pretending to be asleep, and then singing them a little three-chord verse:

Sleeping bears, oh sleeping bears, oh sleeping in their caves.
Sleeping bears, oh sleeping bears, oh sleeping in their caves.
Please be very quiet, oh so very quiet,
If you shake them, if you wake them, they get very mad.

At this point, the kids all spring up, bare their claws and teeth, and give the loudest roar they possibly can. (This is the sort of activity that helps provide necessary balance to fine-motor-based fingerplays and the sitting still, listening attentively circle activities.)

"She was born in a den like this one, twenty-four summers before. Since the grizzly was three years old, she had made her own dens, always in the high ground, usually on the dark side of a mountain. Sometimes she tunneled into a steep forested hillside, in other years she squeezed into a cave.
"After nine days the grizzly's den was complete. The tired bear curled up and tucked her nose into her warm belly. Overnight her drowse deepened; her heart-beat and breathing slowed, and her body cooled a little. Snow fell heavy on the mountain. Within a week, the only sight that life slept below was a thin ribbon of grey mist that threaded the dark sky every time the old grizzly exhaled."

Back in the days when I'd M.C. a couple of daily preschool circle times, there were some fun bear book read alouds, such as Pamela Allen's BERTIE AND THE BEAR.

Kids are into bears. I'd not be surprised to discover that the most popular creatures among American kids are bears and dinosaurs.

There are Teddy bears, Berenstain Bears, Care Bears, Yogi Bear, and Little Bear.

"The bees are buzzing in the tree to make some honey just for me.
When you look under the rocks and plants and take a glance at the fancy ants and maybe try a few"

Baloo, whose name is derived from the Hindi word for "bear," was my own favorite bear character when I was young.

And then there is, of course, the granddaddy of literary bear characters:

" 'Hallo, Pooh,' he said. 'How's things?'
"Terrible and Sad,' said Pooh, 'because Eeyore, who is a friend of mine, has lost his tail. And he's Moping about it. So could you very kindly tell me how to find it for him?'
" 'Well,' said Owl, 'the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.'
" 'What does Crustamoney Proseedcake mean?' said Pooh. 'For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me.'
" 'It means the Thing to Do.'
" 'As long as it means that, I don't mind,' said Pooh humbly."

That the only "real" dinosaurs kids can experience are wired-together dinosaur skeletons does not make dinosaurs any less popular among children. I expect that the same could one day be true about bears.

By far, the most emotional moment of my experiencing the global warming documentary, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, was the footage of a polar bear adrift on a piece of ice, and the realization that such bears are dying thanks to us.

" 'He was too old to be a bear anymore,' Father said. 'He was on his last legs'
" 'But they were the only legs he had!' we would chant, our ritual response -- learned by heart -- Frank, Franny, and I all together"
--from THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE by John Irving

Would you scoff at my fears that bears could soon be extinct? Check out the newly released article in the journal, Science, that warns that the world's fisheries are currently expected to collapse due to overfishing and pollution by the year 2048.

Now, if you want to explain to kids what that Science article is about, then you should share with them Molly Bang's COMMON GROUND: THE WATER, EARTH, AND AIR WE SHARE (Blue Sky Press, 1997). The world's fisheries are one of the specific focuses of that book.

Molly's books about such topics as solar power (MY LIGHT, Blue Sky Press, 2004), Gulf pollution (NOBODY PARTICULAR: ONE WOMAN'S FIGHT TO SAVE THE BAYS, Henry Holt, 2001), and toxic waste (CHATTANOOGA SLUDGE: CLEANING TOXIC SLUDGE FROM CHATTANOOGA CREEK, Harcourt, 1996), have built her a reputation as one of the foremost environmentalists among today's children's authors and illustrators.

In OLD MOTHER BEAR, Molly has joined with Canadian author Victoria Miles to craft a beautifully told and illustrated story of a mature she bear. We see how, during hibernation, she bears a trio of cubs. We see her raise them to the age of three -- the time when they will go off as mature animals -- before curling up in a den and returning to become part of the earth.

While the story is based upon the scientific observations of a bear that lived in Canada's only grizzly bear sanctuary, which is located in British Columbia's Khutzeymateen Valley, the fact that there is no trace of humans in the story's text or illustrations gives the story that sense that it might have taken place recently, or it could well have been a thousand years ago. An extensive afterword provides additional factual information.

Molly Bang's soft, realistic, oil and chalk illustrations vividly depict everything from the miracle of tiny, closed-eyed newborns finding their first drink, to the old mother bear's fierce protection of the juvenile cubs from an enormous male grizzly intruder, to the hillside beneath which the mother's earthly body comes to rest.

Whether or not similar bear stories will continue to take place in the real world, or whether bears will go the way of dinosaurs and passenger pigeons (See THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD GOD BIRD by Phillip Hoose.), will depend upon a realization among young people that it is up to them to advocate for changes in the way the Earth and its creatures are thought of and treated.

OLD MOTHER BEAR, a lovely tale that provides an excellent look and the lifecycle of grizzly bears, is a great example of a kid-friendly book, based in real science, that will aid in fostering awe, curiosity, respectfulness, and activism amongst the best and the brightest of the next generation.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
BudNotBuddy@aol.com