Bearly Literate

When I’m travelling, I always like to pack along a couple of good books.

I enjoy reading on the airplane, and also whenever my travel schedule means a bit of a wait somewhere.

Heck, I love to read at home, too! And we bears are very well connected to books.

Let me introduce you to a few of my literary acquaintances. Some of them have been around for a truly long time.

You’ve heard of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? No one knows who first told this story, but it was published by a poet named Robert Southey way back in 1837.

The three bears in the story have always been easy-going and good-natured.

That certainly describes us!

We think it describes us even better.

 

The human in Southey’s story was originally a cranky older lady (maybe we can think of her as Silverlocks). This character became a mischievous girl named Goldilocks instead in a version of the story published by writer Joseph Cundall in 1849.

A bear plays the hero in another very old story called Snow-White and Rose-Red. Do you know this tale?

Snow-White and Rose-Red were sisters who befriended a bear one cold, snowy winter when he had nowhere else to go. The bear, it turns out, was actually a handsome prince. He had been turned into a bear by a wicked fellow who was mean to the sisters, too. The bear fought the bad guy and killed him. The bear then turned back into a handsome prince, and yup, lived happily ever after!

This German folktale was collected by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. The Brothers Grimm were famous linguists (those are scholars who study language), with a side-interest in folklore. Their first collection of tales was published two hundred years ago, in 1812.

Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared in a collection of stories by A.A. Milne in 1924. Pooh was named for a teddy bear that belonged to Mr. Milne’s real-life son, Christopher Robin Milne.

Now, there’s a Canadian twist to the tale. Christopher had named his teddy in honour of a real bear: Winnie, a black bear from Ontario who lived at the London Zoo. Winnie’s first owner, a Canadian soldier during World War One, had named her for his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

A French cartoonist named Pierre Probst created a wonderful series of children’s books that feature a girl named Caroline. Caroline is independent and adventuresome, and travels with a band of animal friends that includes a fine brown bear named Boum.

There are 43 books in the series, which first appeared in 1953. My own human, Suzanne, adored these books when she was in elementary school!

Have you heard of Paddington Bear? Michael Bond published the first book about Paddington Bear in 1958.

In that story, the Brown family find a little bear sitting on a suitcase in London’s Paddington railway station. His suitcase has a label that says, “Wanted on Voyage.” A note on the bear’s coat says, “Please look after this bear. Thank you.”

Paddington Bear came to England from “deepest, darkest Peru.” Hey, I guess that makes him a spectacled bear!

I love Else Holmelund Minarik’s stories about Little Bear. She published them between 1957 and 1968. They were illustrated by a great artist named Maurice Sendak. Little Bear is a grizzly bear cub with lots of animal friends, including Cat, who loves to eat, and play tricks!

 

You might also know the Canadian TV series called Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear, or the feature film called The Little Bear Movie. These are available on DVD; ask someone to help you find them at your local library, or video store.

Now, we all know and love Garfield! Jim Davis sure created an amazing character in that orange tabby cat. In 1978, Mr. Davis introduced us all to Garfield’s beloved teddy bear: Pooky.

Sandra Boynton is another great illustrator who has written over forty books, filled with her wonderful animal characters. The cats, dogs, cows, hippos, ducks, rhinoceroses, penguins, turkeys, sheep, and other critters that Boynton draws always make me laugh out loud. My favourite, of course, is the bear!

My buddy Dean here likes Ms. Boynton’s work so much that he wears an “I heart Boynton” T-shirt. That’s serious fandom.

Now, be sure to visit your school library, or your local public library, to find more wonderful books about bears. Ask the librarians to help you, too – they’ll have some great suggestions.

“Little Bear: Duck Loses Her Quack” courtesy FatherBearTV

Story and photos © S. Clouthier