Editorial Content for Moon Bear
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Reviewer (text)
Twelve-year-old Tam’s life is in the midst of drastic changes: his village is being forced to evacuate, his father dies from a cluster bomb while attempting to break ground for farming and Tam must take a city farm job to help provide his mother and younger siblings. Tam's job takes him into the surreal world of bear captivity at a bear bile farm, and he has no idea that his world is about to turn upside down when he comes face-to-face with Sôok-dii, a tiny moon bear cub.
With MOON BEAR, award-winning children's author Gill Lewis raises awareness of the dark side of Laos. Lewis deftly interweaves the realities of a war-torn country riddled with corruption and poverty with the heartfelt relationship between a boy and an endangered bear cub. Using the unsettling events of Tam’s life, Lewis zeroes in on Laotian history.
Immensely moving and highly educational, MOON BEAR is the first of its kind and will provide kids with a truly eye-opening look into the world of Laos.
One topic she explores is cluster bombs, and how the U.S. dropped two million tons of these bombs during a secret war in Laos. Today, there is an undetermined percentage of un-explosive ordnance (or UXO) that continues to kill or maim locals. Lewis also aptly demonstrates the ill effects of the logging industry during a poignant scene when Tam and Sôok-dii search for a home in the forest. While both the aforementioned issues are deeply troubling and unconscionable, equally disconcerting is the bear bile industry, which is the main focus of Lewis's plot.
Amid the various historical topics, Lewis clearly captures the nuances of the Lao (people of Laos) in their language and attitudes, and incorporates them into Tam’s interactions with the rest of Lewis’s colorful and well-developed cast. Each cliff-hanging chapter gently segues into the next and is filled with unexpected twists and turns, especially the ending.
Immensely moving and highly educational, MOON BEAR is the first of its kind and will provide kids with a truly eye-opening look into the world of Laos.
Teaser
Both torn from their homes in Laos, a boy and a moon bear cub form a deep bond in this piercing tale of impossible odds and resilient hope, based on true conditions in Eastern Asia. Deeply and powerfully moving, MOON BEAR is an unforgettable story of compassion, hope, and bravery against overwhelming odds, and brings to light the real-life, heartwrenching plight of Asia’s endangered moon bears.
Promo
Both torn from their homes in Laos, a boy and a moon bear cub form a deep bond in this piercing tale of impossible odds and resilient hope, based on true conditions in Eastern Asia. Deeply and powerfully moving, MOON BEAR is an unforgettable story of compassion, hope, and bravery against overwhelming odds, and brings to light the real-life, heartwrenching plight of Asia’s endangered moon bears.
About the Book
Both torn from their homes in Laos, a boy and a moon bear cub form a deep bond in this piercing tale of impossible odds and resilient hope, based on true conditions in Eastern Asia.
Twelve-year-old Tam, on a dare, ventures into a moon bear den in the mountains of Northern Laos. His goal is to steal the cub and sell it, making a fortune for his family. But the mother bear’s unexpected return upends Tam’s plan, and he barely escapes with his life. And then his life implodes anyway: his entire mountain village is forced to relocate to make room for a new highway. Lured by the promise of electricity, running water, and a television, Tam’s people move to an overcrowded village, where Tam’s father is killed by a stray landmine.
Now the family breadwinner, Tam is forced to work hundreds of miles away in the city, at a moon bear farm where bile from bear gall bladders is used for medicine. It is a cruel, miserable place, and when a familiar face --- the very cub he’d seen in the den --- is sold to the bear farm, Tam knows he must save this moon bear, no matter what it takes. He secretly nurses it back to health and they develop an unbreakable bond. Tam swears to return his beloved cub to the wild, but how will they ever find a way to be free?
Deeply and powerfully moving, MOON BEAR is an unforgettable story of compassion, hope, and bravery against overwhelming odds, and brings to light the real-life, heartwrenching plight of Asia’s endangered moon bears.
