An engaging tale of bears from the animals’ perspective.
Author Marie-Paule Mahoney and illustrator James Mahoney (Molly and Babou, 2014), along with artist Guiza (Ruff to Riches, 2016), offer an illustrated chapter book about a bear’s continuing adventures.
Black bear Babou discovered a sick, orphaned young cub called Coco and got her help from a veterinarian. Now seven months old and 40 pounds, Coco needs a proper “mama bear” to teach her survival skills before their hibernation instinct kicks in and they need to get away from more settled areas. On a journey north, Babou and Coco get permission from the local “dada bears” to find Coco an adoptive mother. Babou discovers a good candidate, a friendly bear with two cubs of her own, who agrees to foster Coco in exchange for Babou’s finding her a bigger den; Babou dubs her “Good Mama.” Coco learns bear essentials from Good Mama and her cubs before they all hibernate together. Afterward, the bears search for food, meet other animals, and enjoy springtime. Babou and Coco return south for a short visit, just in time to help the veterinarian’s dog, Rags, who has a heart problem. Back up north, Coco becomes friendly with Spiky, a young bear. After hibernating, she gives birth to two cubs of her own, whom she can now teach to live the wild life “that she was born to live.” In this follow-up, the author doesn’t attempt to make bears into human substitutes, as so many children’s books do. Barring a few anthropomorphic moments (such as Coco’s tears), the work is realistic about the sometimes-frightening struggles that bears face in the wild and the dangers they face from people. Unusually, readers get the story from an ursine point of view; for example, Good Mama approves when Coco gets rid of the veterinarian’s radio collar even though it’s meant to help keep her safe. The illustrations mix a realistic cartoon style with photos (and one black-and-white drawing), a decision that portrays Coco’s world well. The plot is episodic and can feel disconnected at times, although the overall life-cycle theme is helpful.
An engaging tale of bears from the animals’ perspective.Pub Date: June 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4787-9453-0
Page Count: 98
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A well-loved author brings together, on a Maine vacation, characters from two of her books. Peter's parents have assured him that though Sheila ("The Great") Tubman and her family will be nearby, they'll have their own house; but instead, they find a shared arrangement in which the two families become thoroughly intertwined—which suits everyone but the curmudgeonly Peter. Irrepressible little brother Fudge, now five, is planning to marry Sheila, who agrees to babysit with Peter's toddler sister; there's a romance between the grandparents in the two families; and the wholesome good fun, including a neighborhood baseball game featuring an aging celebrity player, seems more important than Sheila and Peter's halfhearted vendetta. The story's a bit tame (no controversies here), but often amusingly true to life and with enough comic episodes to satisfy fans.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-525-44672-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Troubled teen meets totemic catalyst in Mikaelsen’s (Petey, 1998, etc.) earnest tribute to Native American spirituality. Fifteen-year-old Cole is cocky, embittered, and eaten up by anger at his abusive parents. After repeated skirmishes with the law, he finally faces jail time when he viciously beats a classmate. Cole’s parole officer offers him an alternative—Circle Justice, an innovative justice program based on Native traditions. Sentenced to a year on an uninhabited Arctic island under the supervision of Edwin, a Tlingit elder, Cole provokes an attack from a titanic white “Spirit Bear” while attempting escape. Although permanently crippled by the near-death experience, he is somehow allowed yet another stint on the island. Through Edwin’s patient tutoring, Cole gradually masters his rage, but realizes that he needs to help his former victims to complete his own healing. Mikaelsen paints a realistic portrait of an unlikable young punk, and if Cole’s turnaround is dramatic, it is also convincingly painful and slow. Alas, the rest of the characters are cardboard caricatures: the brutal, drunk father, the compassionate, perceptive parole officer, and the stoic and cryptic Native mentor. Much of the plot stretches credulity, from Cole’s survival to his repeated chances at rehabilitation to his victim being permitted to share his exile. Nonetheless, teens drawn by the brutality of Cole’s adventures, and piqued by Mikaelsen’s rather muscular mysticism, might absorb valuable lessons on anger management and personal responsibility. As melodramatic and well-meaning as the teens it targets. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-380-97744-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
