Ice Age Cave Bear: The Giant Beast That Terrified Ancient Humans

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Prehistoric giant cave bears were animals to be feared. This book deals
with the extinct North American short-faced bear and modern bears, but
its primary focus is the Chauvet Cave in France, the site of many cave
bear skeletons and prehistoric cave paintings. The text not only
includes factual information about the Chauvet cave bears (what they
looked like, how they lived, what caused their extinction), it also
discusses cave bear worship. Cave bear bones were found in unusual
locations in the cave and in unusual positions. The author discusses the
various theories that have been proposed to explain the positions of the
bones, including ritual use, flood deposition, and cave collapse. But
she doesn’t address the possibility, which is obvious to most
children, that children playing in the cave sometime between prehistory
and the present may have moved the bones. While the question of bear
worship may be a key point in academic discussions, it is of little
interest to children. The pictures of huge skeletons and gory images of
cave bears eating other animals are more likely to elicit the “Wow,
cool!” response.

Mark Hallett’s lively paintings provide us with believable images of
an extinct animal and its environment. One of these is a painting of the
actual size of a cave bear’s paw so that a reader can compare it to
the size of his or her own hand. The design of the large book is also
appealing. The pages have varying backgrounds and overlapping images.
One particularly striking photograph of a prehistoric cave painting of a
bear is presented with text blocked around it to shape the outline of
the bear. The book also includes informative maps and diagrams, and an
index.

Overall, Ice Age Cave Bear is a very good book that will hold the
interest of lower- and upper-elementary school children. Highly
recommended.