Great Grizzy Wilderness: A Story of the Pacific Rain Forest Book

A mother grizzly bear awakens from her hibernation and teaches her two cubs how to hunt and eat as much food as they can to prepare for the next winter.

Children's Literature

The story of a year in the lives of a mother grizzly bear and her two cubs, this new release from Soundprints reads a bit like the narration of a public television nature program. Not content with the simple drama of the bear family's struggle to survive in the Pacific rain forest, naturalist Audrey Fraggalosch points out innumerable minor players along the way—birds, plants, and other animals large and small. All are carefully identified and illustrated in painstaking detail by wildlife artist Donald Eberhart. There is a wealth of information, including a pictorial glossary, for budding young naturalists. However, in an effort to include everything that is mentioned in his illustrations, Eberhart has produced some startling anomalies of scale (wrens as large as martens, otters the size of wolves) which will confuse young readers. It is also curious that the cubs didn't appear to grow perceptibly in this first full year of their life. 2000, Soundprints/Trudy Corporation, $15.95 and $5.95. Ages 8 to 12. Reviewer: Michele Tremaine