Billy and the Bearman

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

A chance encounter links two runaways, 17-year-old John Redell, aka
Bearman, and Billy Gavin, 12. Both have been physically abused, Bearman
by his widowed alcoholic father, and Billy by his stepfather, who is
also sexually abusing him. The pair hide out at Bearman’s bush camp
before returning to town to rescue Billy’s younger sister, Karen, who
Billy fears is also being sexually abused. After the pair deposit Karen
with Bearman’s half-sister in Calgary, Bearman rather inexplicably
decides he must prove his worth as a tracker by going off into the
foothills to search for a missing rodeo cowboy whose plane has crashed.
Billy joins him, and the two eventually rescue the man. Although they
end up falling into police hands, the story ends on a positive note.

Billy and the Bearman is generally successful. However, its treatment
of physical and sexual abuse is problematic; at the end of the book, for
example, both abusers walk away from their crimes unpunished.
Recommended with reservations.