The Bear

Claire Cameron

Feb 2014 · Doubleday Canada

About this ebook

The black dog is not scratching. He goes back to his sniffing and huffing and then he starts cracking his bone. Stick and I are huddled tight. . . . It is dark and no Daddy or Mommy and after a while I watch the lids of my eyes close down like jaws.

Told from the point of view of a six-year-old child, The Bear is the story of Anna and her little brother, Stick--two young children forced to fend for themselves in Algonquin Park after a black bear attacks their parents. A gripping and mesmerizing exploration of the child psyche, this is a survival story unlike any other, one that asks what it takes to survive in the wilderness and what happens when predation comes from within.

Ratings and reviews

Gripping and harsh. This story is well told. Anna is too eloquent for a 4 or 5 year old but that doesn't matter. We are there with her in the scary forest where she does her best to do the right thing for herself and her baby brother. It is all the more poignant finding out that the parents, who'd been splitting up had just got back together again. I recommend this book to anyone who goes camping with their children in the wilderness.

It is an interesting attempt to portray the thoughts of a small child as she deals with surviving the death of her parents from a bear.

About the author

CLAIRE CAMERON grew up in Toronto and studied at Queen's University. She led canoe trips in Algonquin Park and worked as an instructor for Outward Bound, teaching mountaineering, climbing and white-water rafting in Oregon. She lived San Francisco and London, UK, until moving back to Toronto, where she now lives with her husband and two sons. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, National Post and The Millions. Her first novel, The Line Painter, won the Northern Lit Award from the Ontario Library Service and was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Crime Writing Award for best first novel. Visit the author at www.claire-cameron.com.