Module 3 - The Biggest Bear

Ward, L. (1952). The biggest bear. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

SUMMARY

A Johnny Orchard walks by other barns in his area that have bear hides pinned to the barn. Johnny swears he will find the biggest bear and shot him to display for all to see. As Johnny goes hunting a young cub comes from behind a brush. Johnny keeps the cub until its adulthood when the cub/bear begins to eat everything in the area. Johnny volunteers to take the bear out to shot him and gets captured with the bear in a trap. The story ends with a happy twist leaving the reader with a little hope for the boy.

MY IMPRESSION

I loved this story because of the ending. As the story goes along I wasn't sold, I guessed something bad would happen to the bear and a life lesson learned for all. When the bear is caught at the end with Johnny I was tickled with the spin and appreciated the author's craft in ending the story. This book was also capable to holding the reader's attention without the words because the illustrations, hence the reason it was a Caldecott Award winner.

REVIEW

The Biggest Bear is the kind of book that is great for beginning readers because it tells an interesting story in complete sentences but uses simple, though not dumbed-down, language and is short enough to keep a young child’s attention. It is the sort of thing that youngsters used to be given after they had learned their phonics in order to help them practice their reading and comprehension skills. That is, until the boring basal readers were developed to go along with the look-say method. It is a really cute tale, and the pictures are enjoyable too. Even though Johnny ends up getting in big trouble, not from any wrong doing, the ending is very satisfactory. I haven’t seen an early reading book that I thought was as good as this one in a long time.

Walker, W. (2010, April 24). [Review of the book The Biggest Bear]. Home School Book Review. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolbookreview/779469/

SUGGESTION FOR LIBRARY USE

With primary grades create a class book to extend a piece of literature and to encourage students to synthesize concepts. In the library create a class book to allow students to think what they would do with a bear if they took it to the woods. Each student is asked to complete the sentence and illustrate it:

In the woods, my bear and I would like to ___________.

When the students have completed their pages, bind them together using a comb bind, staples or yarn to make a class book.