The Bear A Novel by Claire Cameron / Little, Brown and Company

This is a novel about a family on a camping trip. However, this camping trip will have an unusual and very tragic ending. The novel takes place at Algonquin Park, Bates Island, Lake Opeongo in 1991. The novel ends in 2011 at Algonquin Park. Because of the tragedy these children return home totally changed. Life will never be the same in their Canadian home. As Anna, the daughter and sibling, might say, "We were four. Now we are two." Sadly, their parents are murdered by a bear. Anna who is five years old and her brother, Alex or Stick, who is two years old, survive in the park alone while their parents lie dead or near death close by. I think of it as a very sad coming of age novel because the narrator all the way through the novel is Anna, a five year old. Stick calls her Nana. 

It is the details like Alex's nickname for Anna and Anna's nickname for Alex that still stick in my mind and remain unforgettable. I truly can say my heart fell in love with children all over again while reading The Bear by Claire Cameron. Their innocence, their honesty, their ability to love in any circumstance and their feelings of responsibility are traits often taken for granted by society. There is also the fact that children do grieve just like adults. Only a child's grief seems deeper because they don't have the grown-up words to describe their heart felt feelings.

Anna has a doll named Gwen whom Alex calls Glen. Anna talks to Gwen and holds her as if she were real and breathing.  Psychologically complex on one level, Anna understands that her furry doll is not real which is perhaps a story in it self. When Anna drops or loses Gwen she looks for her like she would look for Alex. So Gwen is a character who can not be ignored in the novel. 
As I read about Anna's innocence, I also could see her mature while on Bates Island. It is the innocence that protects her mind. Innocence which makes her see Alex as just as a pooping little brother who gets in the way or who eats all the cookies in the tin. It is innocence that abides and makes Anna know it's time to become a loving, big sister who must protect her brother and herself with a spear.  At this point, she gives herself the role of princess or queen. This is when she struggles against unknown forces to survive. I think at this point she knows something is wrong, but she has no words for what is wrong. She just knows to take action: move the canoe, grab the berries and swallow as many as possible and wipe off Alex's bum. When she loses Alex, she realizes how much she loves her little brother.

No wonder there are doctors who choose as their life's work Child Psychology. A child's mind is simple and complex. A child's mind seems like a road which turns back on itself. There is the magical ability to convert problems into challenges. There is the ability to become mature and then, become a child again. There is always electrical, vibrating movement in their minds and hearts.

Once the children are rescued and taken to a hospital and home,  Anna and Alex's honesty is really displayed. Still, death is like a foggy mirror. They never quite understand that their parents are dead. Anna knows Grandpa's chair has moved into their house. Finally, Alex just squats and cries and cries. Still, he gobbles all the cookies in the house. Probably, feeding the emptiness left by his parents. He waits for daddy to come through the gate, home from work. He never comes. 

When I finished the book, I sat and held it. I didn't want to let go of Anna or Alex. It seemed as if I had become their guardians. This is because of the skill of Claire Cameron's pen. Although this is a novel, there are facts in it. As much as I loved Alex and Anna, the children are only from the imaginative mind of the author. However, two adults did die together on Bates Island. They were killed by a bear. I would like to end my review by mentioning their names. I think they died like heroes. Their names are Raymond Jakubauskas and Carole Frehe. The attack happened in October of 1991. There is no known reason ir reasons why the bear chose to murder these two people. 

While the children seem the most important characters in the novel, there is always the hovering spirits of the parents on that island. The mother who tells Anna in her dying breath to take Alex to the canoe, and the father who puts Alex and Anna in the Coleman for safety. I can't forget Raymond Jakubauskas or Carole Frehe either. I can not imagine the fear, the struggle or anything about the attack that the two very real people experienced on that island. I can only thank Claire Cameron for remembering them in her novel, The Bear.http://www.claire-cameron.com/books/the-bear/  As far as Algonquin Park, one tragic incident can not destroy its beauty. http://www.algonquinparkcanoetrips.com/