A Bear Named Trouble, written by Marion Dane Bauer. Published on May 9, 2006 by Random House Books.
Nominated for the Nutmeg Book Award & the Louisiana Young Reader's Choice Award
Genre: Realistic Fiction Sub-Genre: Realism (based on a true story)
Characters
Primary: Jonathan, his sister Rhonda, their father, a goose at the zoo (Mama Goose), a wild young bear (Trouble)
Secondary: Jonathan's mother, the zoo's gatekeeper, the bus driver
This book is based almost entirely on a real incident; only the main character, a young boy named Jonathan, and his family have been invented for the purpose of writing the book. (Bauer heard the story of Trouble and felt compelled to write it as a novel; she felt that recounting the events through the eyes of a young person like "Jonathan" would be most appealing to young readers, whom the book was designed for.) The story of Trouble is narrated from his and Jonathan's perspective. When Trouble's mother will no longer take care of him, the adolescent bear wanders to a town in Alaska where Jonathan and his father, a zookeeper, live. Trouble is eventually given his name because of the damage he does to the zoo's bear enclosure as he tries to get closer to another bear that already lives there. Jonathan and his father are given depth of character when we learn that Jonathan's mother and sister have not yet moved to Alaska from the family's old home in Minnesota; the two miss the rest of their family very much.
A Bear Named Trouble would be good for use in a literature circle or book club, perhaps for middle elementary grade students such as those in the fourth or fifth grades. I would likely assign this novel to students who cited a preference for books about animals and nature in a reading interest inventory. The story is simple yet touching, and explaining to students that Trouble was a real bear and his adventures at the zoo really happened would certainly add an element of interest and excitement.
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