Wherever Bears Be

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Two young girls, Belinda and Samantha, go on a blueberry-picking
expedition in the woods. “I wish we’d find one bush so full of
berries, we’d be done in a wink,” says one girl. “I wish mountains
were flat!” says the other. But the one concern they share in common
is a fear of bears. Bears also like berries. As the girls pick, they
begin to see imaginary bears all around them. Make-believe bears
suddenly appear cartwheeling, dancing, and somersaulting all around
them; some seem to grow out of the ground and others out of the trees.
To help allay their fears, they make up a song: “Fiddle-dee-di,
fiddle-dee-dee, stay away, bears, wherever bears be! Grumbly, rumbly
bears, be fair! There are berries enough for us all to share!” By
imagining the bears to be friendly and benign fellow berry pickers,
Belinda and Samantha overcome their fear and eventually return home with
two pails of berries.

Anyone who has gone berry picking in the North American wilderness will
know the prickly feeling of a bear-scare fever. Wherever Bears Be
captures that tension wonderfully and playfully. Every rustle of a leaf
or snap of a twig makes the girls jump—yet they stick to their task.
Arden Johnson’s illustrations are equally delicious. Nymphlike bears
that romp and frolic across every page still manage to resemble real
bears. This first-rate book is highly recommended for readers of all
ages.