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| Perma-Bound Edition ©2019 | -- |
| Publisher's Hardcover ©2018 | -- |
| Paperback ©2019 | -- |
Human-animal relationships. Fiction.
Polar bear. Fiction.
Bears. Fiction.
Voyages and travels. Fiction.
Great Britain. History. Henry III, 1216-1272. Fiction.
The lives of a boy and a captured polar bear intertwine in this middle-grade historical novel. Historic documents show that 13th-century king Henry III of England kept a "pale bear" in his menagerie in the Tower of London, a gift from King Haakon IV of Norway. Fletcher takes this spare fact and embroiders a stupendous coming-of-age tale stuffed with adventure and laced with deeper questions. Her protagonist is 12-year-old Arthur, a Welsh-born boy who has run away from the farm in Norway where he lives with his mother, bullying stepbrothers, and tyrannical stepfather to try to get back to Wales to claim his birthright. A series of believable circumstances moves Arthur onto the ship transporting the polar bear to England after King Haakon's disgraced doctor—who is charged with delivering the gift safely or else—discovers that Arthur is able to soothe the bear. Heart-pounding adventures involving shipwreck, pirates, and escape combine with themes of belonging, trust, loyalty, and freedom to keep readers swiftly turning the pages, while the exquisite worldbuilding details will make them feel they are sailing aboard a Scandinavian keel or walking the streets of 13th-century London and Bergen. Fletcher brings the story to a poignant but not fairy-tale-happy ending, suffused as it is by the mature (so apt for a coming-of-age story) questions raised about what freedom actually is. All characters appear to be white. A richly satisfying story saturated with color, adventure, and heart. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)
ALA BooklistWhen Arthur is attacked by bullies on the streets of Norway, he doesn't expect to be stuffed into a cage containing a great ice bear from the north. When she doesn't attack him, Arthur catches the eye of the men responsible for delivering her to London e's to be a gift from the King of Norway to the King of England, and they need someone to keep her calm. They offer Arthur a place on their ship to London so he can work with the bear, and Arthur, who believes he has family in Wales that he longs to find, is eager to accept. He and the bear form a close bond, but when pirates cause the ship to founder, Arthur must rely on the bear for his survival, even if her freedom means betraying his country and his future. Fletcher (Falcon in the Glass?, 2013) blends high-seas action-adventure with a heartwarming animal-human friendship. Based on historical events, this is a heartfelt tale with plenty of middle-grade appeal.
Horn BookTwelve-year-old runaway Arthur becomes the unwilling caretaker of a polar bear, a gift from Norway's King Haakon IV to England's King Henry III. Based on historical records of a "pale bear" in a Tower of London menagerie in the 1250s, this adventure has inherent dramatic interest, but its first-person voice relies heavily on descriptive narration, giving it a sedate tone and pace.
Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)The lives of a boy and a captured polar bear intertwine in this middle-grade historical novel. Historic documents show that 13th-century king Henry III of England kept a "pale bear" in his menagerie in the Tower of London, a gift from King Haakon IV of Norway. Fletcher takes this spare fact and embroiders a stupendous coming-of-age tale stuffed with adventure and laced with deeper questions. Her protagonist is 12-year-old Arthur, a Welsh-born boy who has run away from the farm in Norway where he lives with his mother, bullying stepbrothers, and tyrannical stepfather to try to get back to Wales to claim his birthright. A series of believable circumstances moves Arthur onto the ship transporting the polar bear to England after King Haakon's disgraced doctor—who is charged with delivering the gift safely or else—discovers that Arthur is able to soothe the bear. Heart-pounding adventures involving shipwreck, pirates, and escape combine with themes of belonging, trust, loyalty, and freedom to keep readers swiftly turning the pages, while the exquisite worldbuilding details will make them feel they are sailing aboard a Scandinavian keel or walking the streets of 13th-century London and Bergen. Fletcher brings the story to a poignant but not fairy-tale-happy ending, suffused as it is by the mature (so apt for a coming-of-age story) questions raised about what freedom actually is. All characters appear to be white. A richly satisfying story saturated with color, adventure, and heart. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)
Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews
ALA Booklist
Horn Book
Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Wilson's Children's Catalog
Wilson's Junior High Catalog
CHAPTER 1
Thief
Bergen, Norway
Spring, 1252
IT WAS THE smell of roasting meat that roused me.
A small rain had begun to fall, and though I had curled up beneath the eaves of a cobbler's shop, the ground soaked up the damp and wicked it through my cloak and tunic, into my shirt. Now a wave of talk and laughter met my ear, but I knew that wasn't what had wakened me.
No, it was the smell.
It teased me, growing stronger and then fainter--so faint I thought, for a moment, that I had dreamed it. But then it was back again, a rich, deep, meaty aroma that set all the waters in my mouth to flowing. I rose to one elbow and breathed it in, imagining tearing into a hunk of my mother's roasted mutton, feeling the warmth of it going down and the heavy, drowsy ease of a full belly.
I straightened my cap on my head, hitched my knapsack to my shoulder, and wobbled to my feet. It had been two days since I had finished the last of my provisions, and hunger had made me weak.
The voices dimmed and then swelled again. It was dark; even the stars had vanished. The crowds had thinned, and the men who passed me now seemed somehow sinister, their faces distorted by the shadows of the lanterns that had begun to flicker to life. Beyond the quays the shops and houses of Bergen stood resolutely shoulder to shoulder, solid and prosperous, leaving no room for a starveling waif such as I.
I crept down the street and rounded a corner into an alley, where I spied an inn before me, light blazing from its windows. The rich fragrance of meat assailed me more powerfully than before, flooding my nose and mouth and throat. I told myself that it was fruitless to torture myself with tantalizing aromas. That, without coin, I would be unwelcome in a place such as this. That I might even find myself in peril.
I pushed open the door. I stepped within.
The inn was dim and crowded, rank with the commingled odors of sweat and sour ale and wet wool and mud. But the smell of warm meat wafted all about and underneath the other smells, and it lured me in deep. A serving maid brushed past me bearing a tray above her head. She slapped it down on a table: a mound of roasted rabbit sitting in a puddle of gravy and blood. Men in blue, sailor's garb thronged in about it, digging in with hands and knives. The meat vanished from the platter so quickly it was hard to credit, until a single leg joint lay there alone.
I didn't think; I moved.
I slipped between two seamen who were reaching for it, snatched up the rabbit haunch, and ran hard for the door.
A shout: "Hey! You, boy!" Then more shouts, and curses, and a scraping of benches behind me. "Halt, thief!"
Someone seized my cloak from behind, nearly toppling me. I twisted round and laid eyes on him--a blond, brawny sailor of maybe fifteen years; maybe three years older than I. I kicked his shin and then tore myself away. I scrambled up onto a table and stumbled toward the other side, knocking over a row of flagons and a pitcher of ale.
"Hey!"
Hands reached for my legs. I dodged, stumbling into a trencher full of meat, then leaped from the table and made for the door. I pushed it open. Knocked into a man coming in. Slipped and fell to the ground--all without releasing my grip on the rabbit haunch. I scrambled to my feet and headed into the darkness, praying that the sailors behind me would be too lazy or too drunk to follow.
Excerpted from Journey of the Pale Bear by Susan Fletcher
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
“A lovely little miracle of a book.” —Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal–winning author of The One and Only Ivan
“[A] large-hearted and riveting medieval adventure.” —William Alexander, National Book Award–winning author of Goblin Secrets
“A breathtaking adventure.” —Kirby Larson, Newbery Honor–winning author of Hattie Big Sky
A runaway boy befriends a polar bear that’s being transported from Norway to London in this “stupendous coming-of-age tale stuffed with adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
The polar bear is a royal bear, a gift from the King of Norway to the King of England. The first time Arthur encounters the bear, she terrifies him. Yet, strangely, she doesn’t harm him—though she has attacked anyone else who comes near. So Arthur finds himself taking care of a polar bear on a ship to England.
Tasked with feeding and cleaning up after the bear, Arthur’s fears slowly lessen as he begins to feel a connection to this bear, who like him, has been cut off from her family. But the journey holds many dangers, and Arthur knows his own freedom—perhaps even his life—depends on keeping the bear from harm. When pirates attack, Arthur must make a choice—does he do everything he can to save himself, or does he help the bear to find freedom?
Based on the real story of a polar bear that lived in the Tower of London, this timeless adventure story thoughtfully looks at the themes of freedom, captivity, and the bond between a boy and a bear.