The Moon of the Bears (The Thirteen Moons) [Hardcover]

Jean Craighead George (Author), Ron Parker (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1993 | Age Level: 9 and up | Series: The Thirteen Moons

Chronicles a year in a black bear's life, beginning with her emerging from hibernation in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains during the spring thaw in February.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8-- As the cold eases and spring emerges in fits and starts, the behaviors of a variety of creatures are documented; at the center of the drama is the bear. The book opens with its first stirrings from hibernation, but flashes back--almost as if in the bear's own slumbery dreams--to the events of the summer and autumn before: eating, playing, courtship, and mating. George's writing is memorable, such as one passage in which the animal resists sleep, waiting for the exact instinctual moment to hibernate. Readers also follow the awakenings of nearby insects, sap quickening, and mating dances. Luminous, realistic color paintings, including a double-page spread and some compelling closeups of the bear's face, perfectly enhance the text that George has refined into a less matter-of-fact, more lyrical version of her 1967 original. Here, she captures the mystery of the event while delivering a number of facts. This is accurate nonfiction that reads like a story, and is perfectly suited for reading aloud. --Valerie Lennox, Jacksonville Public Library, FL
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books (February 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060227915
• ISBN-13: 978-0060227913
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,245,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jean Craighead George was born in a family of naturalists. Her father, mother, brothers, aunts and uncles were students of nature. On weekends they camped in the woods near their Washington, D.C. home, climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible plants and made fish hooks from twigs. Her first pet was a turkey vulture. In third grade she began writing and hasn't stopped yet. She has written over 100 books.Her book, Julie of the Wolves won the prestigious Newbery Medal, the American Library Association's award for the most distinguished contribution to literature for children, l973. My Side of the Mountain, the story of a boy and a falcon surviving on a mountain together, was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book. She has also received 20 other awards.She attended Penn State University graduating with a degree in Science and Literature. In the 1940s she was a reporter for The Washington Post and a member of the White House Press Corps. After her children were born she returned to her love of nature and brought owls, robins, mink, sea gulls, tarantulas - 173 wild animals into their home and backyard. These became characters in her books and, although always free to go, they would stay with the family until the sun changed their behavior and they migrated or went off to seek partners of their own kind.When her children, Twig, Craig and Luke, were old enough to carry their own backpacks, they all went to the animals. They climbed mountains, canoed rivers, hiked deserts. Her children learned about nature and Jean came home and to write books. Craig and Luke are now environmental scientists and Twig writes children's books, too.One summer Jean learned that the wolves were friendly, lived in a well-run society and communicated with each other in wolf talk -- sound, sight, posture, scent and coloration. Excited to learn more, she took Luke and went to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Barrow, Alaska, where scientists were studying this remarkable animal. She even talked to the wolves in their own language. With that Julie of the Wolves was born. A little girl walking on the vast lonesome tundra outside Barrow, and a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park were the inspiration for the characters in the book. Years later, after many requests from her readers, she wrote the sequels, Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack.She is still traveling and coming home to write. In the last decade she has added two beautiful new dimensions to her words beautiful full-color picture book art by Wendell Minor and others and - music. Jean is collaborating with award-winning composer, Chris Kubie to bring the sounds of nature to her words.