3.76 Stars from 50 GoodReaders
I love reading and sharing folk tales, and Linda Graves has produced just stunningly lovely artwork for Jane Yolen's retelling of the classic Norse tale, SISTER BEAR.
In this story a little girl finds a cub in the woods. She waits, but when the cubs mother doesn't return she takes it home and convinces her parents to let her keep it. After awhile --when it becomes apparent the bear never intends on devouring them-- they call her SISTER BEAR.
The tale gets suitably folk tale-ish and strange in the next part when the girl decides to take her bear to see the king of Denmark. On the way she seeks housing for herself, her reindeer, and Sister Bear from a home owner, only to be told that all the residents are departing because on every Christmas Eve a horde of terrible trolls always descends upon the house-- to party and basically trash the place.
The little girl isn't put off by this, but stays:
"The Gustersons got everything ready for the trolls. The tables groaned with huge bowls of rice porridge and plump sausages, pots of fish boiled in lye. Then well before dark, the family fled the house. Halva didn't know where they planned to stay, but she was sure it would not be as fine as the house the were leaving.
"So now we must be the hosts," Halva said. Sister Bear grunted in agreement.
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Review: TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Review: THE CHRISTMAS WISH
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Well I won't be a total spoiler for this story, but will say that she was invited back next year.
A fun story. If you would like to do some research on this Norse folktale, you should know that it goes by other names, such as: The Cat on the Dovrefjell or The Cat on the Dovre-Mountain or The Trolls and the Pussycat (my favorite).
Enjoy.
Pam~
SISTER BEAR
by Jane Yolen
Linda Graves (Illustrator)
Reading Information:
Page Count: 32
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available
updated by Pam
November 2014
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