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poplartears's review against another edition
3.0
We were a little unsure about this book at first and the children wondered aloud if this was going to just be a book about a boy killing bears. And well, it was. But it was a very exciting book about a boy killing bears. The excitement and adventure was almost too much for a bedtime read and the kids every night asked for more. It was a very fun read but sometimes I felt as if Mr Major was unsure of his characters or even his genre. The story seemed to veer from historical fiction into the realm of fairy tale occasionally. And though Balser is said to be a young boy of 13 I was forced to wonder if Mr Major knew any 13 year old boys. Balser sometimes seemed much much older, which I would attribute to hard frontier life except that at other times he seemed hardly more mature than an 8 year old. A good read despite some of the inconsistencies.
summermsmith's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
This was a read-aloud for us this year and a slow read out of circumstances out of our control but reading it slowly was great. This is about southern Indiana, with settlers on the Blue River. It made me nostalgic for Indiana. I must confess though, I didn't know there were bears in Indiana, but fully acknowledge that this might be because Balser, Tom and Jim took care of most of the bears before I arrived. The book gave us a great idea of what frontier life was like at this time. It showed how boys had to be responsible and at the same time were allowed the joys of boyhood. it showed how animals can be friends but also dangerous and to be cautious, and also sometimes animals are pets, and also food. And there were lots of bears and other creatures to keep the boys fully interested, and the mama too. I thought it was a lot of fun and laughed so hard today finishing it up and we had to make three attempts to finish it. This was fun, made us laugh quite a bit and had many great conversations, and was for sure a clear picture to all of us of what Indiana would've been like in the late 1800s early 1900s.
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