Abe, Should We Be Afraid of Bears?

Kids love candy, and so do bears. When you have kids in the woods with lots of candy sometimes fireworks are the explosive solution. They also love wedding cake, and when a bear arrives uninvited to a wedding the bear becomes the life of the party. Another thing that bears love is trash, but mama bears tend to get upset when you hit a bunch of cubs on the head with a trash bag. When people discuss forests, mountains, and wild places, the topic often turns to bears. Most people are afraid of bears yet have never seen one in the wild. If they have, they are most likely to have only caught a glimpse of one for a moment and not have face-to-face encounters with them. In this book, the author draws upon a lifetime of interactions with bears and presents eight short stories of true experiences that show not all interactions with bears are hostile. These interactions with bears also involve children, which add complexity and danger but make the stories exciting and often humorous. The main character of the book is Abe, a man with a large nose, beard, and lanky six foot-four frame. Each chapter in the book is an interaction between grizzly bears, black bears, young people, and Abe at a summer camp in Alaska. The author has spent his life telling adventure stories around the campfire and these stories are a gripping good read for both children and adults who love the outdoors. The author hopes that challenging interactions with bears can be a growth experience as folks venture into the out-of-doors.