A Boy and His Bear (Hippo Fantasy) - Softcover

Harriet-graham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590133659 ISBN 13: 9780590133654

Publisher: Scholastic Hippo, 1996

Synopsis

Medieval London comes alive in this novel through the experiences of Dickon, a boy who is apprenticed to a tanner after his father's death. Sent on an errand to the master of the London Bear Garden, Dickon sees a bear being cub mistreated by the Garden workers. Determined to free the cub, Dickon faces many terrible dangers along the way.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7-An exciting, page-turning adventure story that will keep children reading until its gripping climax. Dickon's comfortable childhood changes abruptly with his father's death and his mother's remarriage. Apprenticed to a tanner, he hates the thought of killing animals and seems to be the constant target of the mistress's anger and disdain. While on an errand to the Bear Garden where bears are used to bait attack dogs for entertainment, he befriends a frightened cub. Drawn to it like a magnet, the boy continues to visit the animal until a visit at the annual fair changes his life forever. Seeing the cub's mother fighting in the ring, he becomes determined to save the cub from this fate. At the same time, a bear handler sees Dickon's gentle way with animals as a threat and tries to kill both boy and bear by starting a fire. Dickon and the cub escape to France with a tumbling family where they find themselves once again in a fight for their lives. Readers will identify with Dickon's efforts to save the creature while learning how bears were once mistreated for people's entertainment. A rich and interesting cast of characters from the evil Bear Catcher to the gentle Rosa, daughter of the tumblers, bring the time and place convincingly alive. This is an example of the best sort of historical fiction that involves children in an exciting story while giving them a memorable hero and a taste of life in another time.
Jane Gardner Connor, South Carolina State Library, Columbia
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4^-6. The barbaric "sport" of bearbaiting makes an unusual but compelling subject for this historical novel set in Elizabethan England. When a twist of fate makes Dickon the trainer of a cub in the London Bear Garden, the boy determines to save the animal from its terrible destiny (being chained and torn to pieces by dogs for popular entertainment). Helped by a troupe of tumblers, Dickon flees with the bear to France, only to find that destiny has followed. Despite one of the least felicitous titles in recent memory, this is a highly readable and dramatic story, rich in well-integrated period detail and peopled with a sympathetic cast of characters (even Will Shakespeare makes a cameo appearance) who are challenged by a pack of satisfyingly evil antagonists. Michael Cart

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Hippo
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590133659
• ISBN 13: 9780590133654
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256