Eye of the Great Bear

by Bill Wallace

Dubbed a "coward" by the bullies in his school, Bailey will prove his courage when his family moves from Texas to Montana and he faces down a grizzly bear in order to save his own sister, in a turn-of-the-century adventure. Original.

Genres: Middle Grade, Juvenile

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

Bill Wallace was an American teacher and later an author of children's books. He started writing to quiet down his fourth grade students, who loved his stories and encouraged him to make “real” books.

Bill Wallace grew up in Oklahoma. Along with riding their horses, he and his friends enjoyed campouts and fishing trips. Toasting marshmallows, telling ghost stories to scare one another, and catching fish was always fun.

Bill Wallace has won numerous children's state awards and been awarded the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award for Children's Literature from the Oklahoma Center for the Book.

Bill Wallace died from Lung cancer on January 30, 2012.

Former elementary school teacher; West Elementary School, Chickasha, OK, principal, since 1977, and physical education teacher. Speaker at schools and universities in various states, including State University of New York and University of South Florida.

AWARDS:

Bluebonnet Award from Texas Association of School Librarians and Children's Round Table and Sequoyah Children's Book Award from Oklahoma State Department of Education, both 1983, Central Missouri State University Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 1984, and Nebraska Golden Sowers Award from Nebraska Library Association, 1985, all for A Dog Called Kitty; Central Missouri State University Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 1984, and Pine Tree Book Award, 1985, both for Trapped in Death Cave.

Reviews

[Lela Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Join Bailey as he faces the grizzly, And discovers what fear really is! As much as Bailey wanted to move to the valley mountains he never would have guest what was going to happen or how he would survive.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life in Texas.
Growing up.
Families.
Survival w/and w/out doctors. Home medicine.
Angels.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was feeling generous with 3 stars since this is an author I enjoyed as a kid.

[Meghan Keen · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating: 4.5/10

i found this book on my shelf. bill wallace was my favorite author in elementary school. i mainly liked that his books were set in Oklahoma and were almost always about dogs. this book, eye of the great bear, contains zero dogs and is set in Texas and was therefore uninteresting to me as a kid.

it’s light reading, i flew through it in under a day and i’m a little disappointed.

i enjoyed the last third of the book, which is where most of the action was. the beginning two thirds of the book was mostly exposition. the actual scene where Bailey encounters the bear was very expected and involved too much foreshadowing. Maybe i’m expecting too much out of a kids book though idk.

i didn’t care for not knowing the time frame this was set in. they talk about electric lights being invented sometime in the middle of the book but that’s about it. i wish there had been more context to indicate the book did not take place in modern day.

the characters were all fairly one dimensional and there were entirely too many of them. when Daniel, Patrick, and Andrew are all brothers with the same personality traits and no defining characteristics, it’s impossible to tell which is which. nor does it lend me to care about any of the characters as people. i enjoyed Bailey (the main character), Kimmerly (even though her only personality traits appeared to be hugging legs and asking too many questions), and maybe “Daddy”, who was never actually given a real name in the story. (EDIT: “daddy” is named John. it’s mentioned maybe twice in the book. my point still stands).

on that note, what pre-teen boy still calls his dad Daddy?

it wasn’t an awful book but i definitely understand why i was never able to get more than a couple chapters in on this book as a kid. it just doesn’t become particularly interesting until the book is nearly over.

[Patty Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book then i was younger and loved in, being a big fan of bears and all this book caught my attention. Bill Wallace was my favorite author as a child, he writes amazing childrens books. This book I liked because it's about a boy who is a little jumpy and his brothers make fun of him and pick on him and one day when he is out with his dad in the middle of the night and standing by the truck he steps by a rattlesnake and usually people cant move away fast enough from rattlesnakes but he jumped so fast that the rattlesnaked missed and after that his brothers didnt pick on him anymore after that. But that is just the beginning this book is about being yourself and that's it ok to be yourself and the boy and his family end up moving up to the mountains and that is when he runs into the bear. These are great books to get your children to start reading. I share with my little cousins and they enjoy them. This book is full of all kinds of adventure.

[Mary MacKintosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

First person account of settlers who move from Texas to Montana. They travel mainly by train, support each other and deal with nature. The main character, Bailey, thinks of himself as cowardly, but in the end finds a courage that holds him up in his family and community

[karyn maddox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved Eye of the Great Bear

Great books for all, young and old. I am especially glad to add this to my reading list for my two young sons.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why did it take me so long to find this?