Jasper Robinson-Woods is nearly 14. He spends quite a lot of time halfway up the tree in the front of his house. It’s his safe place. He’s not so keen on going inside. Someone is dying inside. It’s his goldfish, Han Solo. He is lying on his side.
Jasper is struggling. He thinks about things a lot. His dad who he hardly ever sees. His mum, and her boyfriend, Manly Steve, who gets up his nose. And the grizzly bear. This bear is looking for him, hunting him. Jasper doesn’t really like to sleep. The bear is in his nightmares. ‘The darkness brings him.’
When mum comes home and asks if he would be okay if her boyfriend moves in, Jasper struggles even more. Nothing is right. No-one cares or understands him.
But good things do happen to Jasper. He is a talented artist and enjoys his art class at school. He’s met a new girl who is in his class. She’s really nice and also has a double-barrelled name, Nina Frankton-Forbes. Hopefully they can be friends. His teacher is excited as she’s entered his picture in a competition art show, and he’s been selected for the exhibition.
Jasper is a lost soul. He’s intelligent, funny, and just a normal kid overloaded with events that in turn are causing him to find it almost impossible to control his emotions.
Bear is about finding your way through darkness to the light. Beautifully written with lots of soul, love and a touch of humour.
Reviewed by Emily Ross
Age Guide 13+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kiri Lightfoot is an NZ-based author and actor. She has worked as a scriptwriter in children’s television and as an actor both for theatre and screen. She continues to work part-time in television and also runs poetry reading sessions in aged-care homes and hospitals with charity ‘Active Arts’. Kiri worked for many years as a telephone counsellor with Youthline and as a volunteer mentor in an alternative education school.
Bear is her first novel for young adults and was inspired by working with young people at this time. Kiri is now a mother of three school-aged children and lives in central Auckland. Her previous books are picture books: Ming’s Iceberg, illustrated by Kimberly Andrews and Every Second Friday, illustrated by Ben Galbraith, a shortlist in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards 2009.
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