Title: Bear That Went Bump in the Night
Author: Shereen H. Waterman
Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 978-1-64361-542-4
Genera: Children’s Book
Pages: 46
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Author Shereen H. Waterman has written a story about a family living in Alaska, on their homestead near the town of Kenai – off the banks of the Resurrection Creek. Googling that area will reveal images of an absolutely stunning natural forest and mountainous landscape, both remote and pristine.
Bear That Went Bump in the Night tells about a family which has their life infiltrated by a large bear. First noticed when Larry and his dad were fishing, this bear initially kept its distance from the humans. But as the days went by and the winter approached, the bear became more aggressive in its own territorial food gathering; which became a regular problem for the family once the bear visited their homestead. The bear first ate some trash, then ate a chicken, then attacked a pig, but the ultimate annoyance became a threat when the bear knocked over a kerosene heater in the chicken’s barn, causing it to burn down and destroy the entire structure along with killing all of the chickens.
This called for the family to rid themselves of the problem bear. The dad, Larry, and a tracker went out to hunt the animal. Eventually, the smart bear was shot and killed, and every bit of the bear, all of the meat, fur, and even the claws were used in various ways for the family and their neighbors.
With only a few illustrations, this book relies on the text, embedded dialog and the narration of the storyteller to create a place in children’s imagination unlike that of most are accustomed. Living a lifestyle analogous to the early pioneers; self-reliance, hard work, along with the teaching of survival techniques of fishing, farming and hunting are all brought together with minutia of details such that kids will learn so much when they read this story. The author also has a few “talking points” for parents to ask their kids at the end of the book to further discussions and remark on the details brought forward in the book.
Overall, this is an excellent book, written in a genre in which Davey Crockett would have wrote – a timely window back to the basics of living off the land. As bears are territorial animals, so are humans, and when the two species collide in a survival situation – only one will live on. Shereen H. Waterman’s Bear That Went Bump in the Night pays homage to the natural competition for survival in the most beautiful of natural surroundings.
