Other editions of book Salt Bear

Salt Bear tells the story of a young salt bear (a mythical creature of the American West) who goes on an epic journey of self discovery with his best friends, Buddy, a jackalope (another mythical creature), and Old Rombo, a cactus buck. Salt Bear’s themes, like those of fantasies such as the Harry Potter series, Richard Adams’ Watership Down, Brian Jacque’s Redwall series, and Lemony Snicket’s unfortunate events, are powerful. Self discovery, the power of healing, the miracle of tolerance, the meaning of courage and fear, and love’s grace are interwoven into scenes of journeying, battle, death, justice, and nature’s cycles. The adventure plays out in the wilderness of pinion, juniper, ponderosa pine, and aspen forests that range from the Colorado National Monument in Western Colorado to the Gooseneck formations in Utah.Salt Bear is a fantasy novel belonging to the tradition of children and juvenile novels created by works like Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in The Willows, recent novels by David Clement-Davies (Fire Bringer and The Sight), or the Rescuer series by Margery Sharp.The story begins when Salt Bear is forced by Buddy to question what his real name is. “Salt Bear’s a kind of bear…not a name,” Buddy explains. Salt Bear has been raised near a salt lick above Glade Park below Mud Springs in Western Colorado without knowing his mother, father or other salt bears. Is he the first of his kind? Did he have a mother and father?After a conversation in which Old Rombo tells him that only the ravens can answer his questions, Salt Bear travels toward the Coke Ovens, sheer sandstone monoliths that rise above Monument Valley’s canyon floor. On this first journey Salt Bear is confronted by a snow owl from the Canadian tundra with the ability to predict the future. The frightening owl, from a ponderosa tree in moonlight, warns that if Salt Bear continues to the Coke Ovens, he will face catastrophe.From this point on the adventure begins to build. Danger, fields of death, sadness, and terror, and moments of discovery and exhilaration follow as Salt Bear, Buddy, and Old Rombo climb the high mountains, cross a raging river, leave Disappointment Valley behind, and finally find the magic of who and what Salt Bear is as a creature. This does not end the adventure, however. For even more danger looms as the creatures in the clearing in Gooseneck’s country band together to face the horror that has plagued the land for too long. In the great battle to come Salt Bear’s courage and sanity will be tested, and he will either come through or his world and the creatures he cares for will die.

Salt Bear decides, after a conversation with his best friend, Buddy the jackalope, who was scratching "behind his right prong horn just above his big floppy ear," that he needed a name. At the salt lick in Glade Park above the Colorado National Monument, he was the only animal whose name came from the name of his kind of bear rather than who he was as an individual. This starts Salt Bear off on his first journey to find out if other salt bears are alive. After all, being the only one of your kind of creature is a lot responsibility. In this journey Salt Bear first encounters a mysterious snow owl who frightens him with prophecies and then tries to ask a raven about salt bears. This first journey ends on a night of full moon on top of the Coke Oven monoliths as a sky-full of ravens circle in silver moonlight above his head. There he meets the oldest ravens alive who terrify him with their strange behavior of weirding prophecies. Thomas Davis has created an adventure story in the tradition of Watership Down or Wind in the Willows. As three friends go off into a wilderness toward the Gooseneck Country of Eastern Utah, they not only have to cross high mountains and rivers, but they also find themselves struggling through a landscape filled with terror and death and the madness of a great grizzly bear and mountain lion. In the end Salt Bear finds out who he is. Buddy and Old Rombo, the cactus buck, also discover the magic of who they are in a classic tale of the American west. A widely published poet Davis's language sings with powerful descriptions and memorable scenes designed to engage any reader who still has adventure in their bones and a feeling of excitement about who they might be in life. James Janko, winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Prize for the Novel and numerous other literary awards, has said of Davis's writing that "Here you will find language and story that mesmerize the reader, that transport one to places where words and stories are born." This is Young Adult literature at its finest. With moments of humor as well as adventure, it will appeal to those who are on the cusp of their life's journey, whose imaginations dance when they are stimulated to think about who they are and what they might become.