Written in 1952, this black and white book won an Caldecott Medal. The story of a young boy who found a baby bear. His family live on a farm. Usually each farm has a bear fur tacked on the barn. Johnny's house is different in that it does not have a bear skin.

When he tries to find a home far away from their house, the bear is attached to Johnny and always returns. On the final time when he knows he has to take the bear far, far away, the bear and the boy became trapped inside a large wooden facility. Men found them and explained that the bear will be taken to a zoo in the city and will be well taken care of.

Johnny knows his bear loves maple sugar, and he promises the bear that he will visit him and bring lots of maple sugar. ( )

three stars for the lovely illustrations but otherwise, this Caledcott winner from 1952 is a depressing story that I would never recommend to kids. This story would never be published today. An excellent illustration of how times change. Young Johnny sets out to shoot a bear, as it is embarrassing that his farm is the only one in town without a bearskin tacked up on the wall of the barn. He finds a baby bear and ends up making it a pet, which you would think (being a children's book), would be a charming and happy thing - maybe talking about the importance of loving animals and being gentle. Instead, the townsfolks want Johnny to get rid of the bear, so he sets out to return the bear to the woods and in the process, the bear gets captured to be put on display at a zoo.

Absolutely depressing.

Nice illustrations. ( )

The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward (1952; 1980 ed.) 85 pages.

READING LEVEL: 3.9 AR POINTS: 0.5
Preschool (ages 4-7)

A classic children's story published in 1952...and how cute! I read to two of my grandboys this morning. The youngest, age 5, and the oldest, age 7, and both loved it. The youngest gave it a hundred stars and actually stayed interested in the story the whole time, which is a hard thing for him to do. Their daddy is a hunter and they are learning the ropes, so killing a few bears on the first pages didn't phaze them in the least and they could relate. But, they didn't want big bear to be killed. Thank God there was an alternative plan with a happy ending. ( )

The story was about a middle-schoolish boy, raised in the country and accustomed to hunting (the first page will, um, trigger some people these days). He wants to bag a bear, but instead makes friends with an orphan cub. When the bear gets too big, the boy has a hard choice to make, which would generate some serious discussion once the adults quit clutching their pearls, but all's well that ends well.
Illustrations are greyish-sepia drawings, and appropriate to the story. The bear is delightfully drawn.

Good enough reading by the narrator, but the turn-page whistle was most annoying, especially since there is so little text on each page the turns come rapidly and often; side 2 does not have it. ( )

A young boy goes off on a bear hunt, determined to bring home a hide to hang on the side of the barn, but ends up rescuing an orphaned cub instead. As the bear grows larger, so do the problems it causes, until a hard decision must be made. The illustrations are very realistic, somewhat reminiscent of Robert McCloskey's work, but Ward never comes as close to cuteness as McCloskey does. Lynd Ward is sort of the father of the graphic novel, having produced six wordless novels comprised solely of woodcuts, in the 1930's, as well as a "story in pictures" - The Silver Pony for children. He also illustrated many juvenile books including the first edition of Johnny Tremain. ( )