The bear's Christmas

"Once upon a time, long, long ago, bears did not hide away and sleep through the winter." So begins this original Christmas legend about a young bear, driven by hunger, whose attack on a stray lamb is diverted by a heavenly vision. Enchanted, the bear follows the shepherds across the snowy winter fields to a stable. There a woman with a baby in her arms beckons the bear and gives him a wondrous gift that miraculously satisfies his hunger, sending him happily back to his cave to sleep until spring. And ever since that first Christmas night, bears have slept all winter long.

Brigitte Frey Moret lives with her husband and children near Zurich, where she supervises an educational group for mentally handicapped adults. This is her first book.