Fraser Bear, the fictional black bear cub we meet shortly after his birth, may be the hero of this tale, but in “real life” he is a stuffed bear, holding a salmon in his mouth, created by the Pacific Salmon Foundation and Rocky Mountain Vacations.
All the proceeds from the sales of this plush toy go to the foundation. You could call this book a reverse tie-in: Normally, a book provides the impetus for a toy – think Pooh.
Fraser Bear, whose habitat is the furthest reaches of the Fraser River in British Columbia, has a life closely entwined, we learn, with that of the Chinook salmon.
Fraser Bear: A Cub's Life, by Maggie de Vries, illustrated by Renn� Benoit, GreyStone, 48 pages, $19.95, ages 5 to 8
It is at the latter's spawning grounds, reached at the end of the fish's life after an ocean and river journey of thousands of miles, that Fraser and his ilk find the essential sustenance that supplements a diet of berries, nuts and grubs.
There is science aplenty here – in the season-by-season growth and development of the cub – all fascinating stuff for junior biologists, but it's the art, both prose and painting, that takes this book to a fine and high plateau.
In an example of perfect complementarity, author and illustrator have worked their magic: Maggie de Vries deftly weaves an engrossing and often suspenseful tale out of the facts, while Renné Benoit's paintbrush provides full-colour visuals of bear, salmon, river, meadow and forest, which make the spirit soar.
