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Bearskin
Betrayed by his own father, the infant son of a lowly miller narrowly escapes death and is lovingly adopted by a faithful she-bear. Raised on her nourishing milk, the boy becomes the strongest man in the land -- and the only one brave enough to battle the kingdom's bloodthirsty three-headed dragon. Yet it is wit, not just courage and might, that the hero must employ to win his true the delicate hand of a princess already betrothed to another. Nothing could be more delicious than the marvelous quest that ensues -- a tale of romantic valor, stolen glory, and sweet justice. Caldecott Medalist Trina Schart Hyman has created a pictorial drama that is alive with good humor and splendid characters as forever memorable as Howard Pyle's timeless story. Here is a winning revival from the classic book The Wonder Clock that will surely be savored again and again.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
241 people want to read
About the author
Howard Pyle
752 books315 followersHoward Pyle was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people.
During 1894 he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (now Drexel University), and after 1900 he founded his own school of art and illustration named the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. The term Brandywine School was later applied to the illustration artists and Wyeth family artists of the Brandywine region by Pitz. Some of his more famous students were N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Elenore Abbott, Ethel Franklin Betts, Anna Whelan Betts, Harvey Dunn, Clyde O. DeLand, Philip R. Goodwin, Violet Oakley, Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle, Olive Rush, Allen Tupper True, and Jessie Willcox Smith.
His 1883 classic publication The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood remains in print, and his other books, frequently with medieval European settings, include a four-volume set on King Arthur. He is also well known for his illustrations of pirates, and is credited with creating the now stereotypical modern image of pirate dress. He published an original novel, Otto of the Silver Hand, in 1888. He also illustrated historical and adventure stories for periodicals such as Harper's Weekly and St. Nicholas Magazine. His novel Men of Iron was made into a movie in 1954, The Black Shield of Falworth.
Pyle travelled to Florence, Italy to study mural painting during 1910, and died there in 1911 from a kidney infection (Bright's Disease).
His sister Katharine Pyle was also a writer and illustrator. Their mother was the children's author and translator M.C. Pyle.
During 1894 he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (now Drexel University), and after 1900 he founded his own school of art and illustration named the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. The term Brandywine School was later applied to the illustration artists and Wyeth family artists of the Brandywine region by Pitz. Some of his more famous students were N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Elenore Abbott, Ethel Franklin Betts, Anna Whelan Betts, Harvey Dunn, Clyde O. DeLand, Philip R. Goodwin, Violet Oakley, Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle, Olive Rush, Allen Tupper True, and Jessie Willcox Smith.
His 1883 classic publication The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood remains in print, and his other books, frequently with medieval European settings, include a four-volume set on King Arthur. He is also well known for his illustrations of pirates, and is credited with creating the now stereotypical modern image of pirate dress. He published an original novel, Otto of the Silver Hand, in 1888. He also illustrated historical and adventure stories for periodicals such as Harper's Weekly and St. Nicholas Magazine. His novel Men of Iron was made into a movie in 1954, The Black Shield of Falworth.
Pyle travelled to Florence, Italy to study mural painting during 1910, and died there in 1911 from a kidney infection (Bright's Disease).
His sister Katharine Pyle was also a writer and illustrator. Their mother was the children's author and translator M.C. Pyle.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
October 10, 2018
Trina Schart Hymen is my second favorite illustrator (guess who the first one is). I am a fledgling collector of her work (just scored me a first edition a couple of weeks ago and almost cried). I can't really articulate why I love her work so much. When I try to explain it to people it just comes out as,
"golly gee whilikers she's just the best duuuuhhhh"
Okay not quite like that but I turn into a giggly fangirl and there's lots of "oohhhingg" and "aaahhinngg." It doesn't help that her primary area of expertise was in fairy tales and myths so on top of just being an amazing artist in general she was also painting illustrations for some of my favorite kinds of stories.
She was the art director for the children's magazine "Cricket" for many years, something I discovered accidentally in a used bookstore a few years ago when I came across a whole pile of them and recognized her handwriting. This was really in the hey day of children's illustration in the 80's and early 90's and she fostered many, many up and coming illustrators over the years. She illustrated over 150 books in her career, won a Caldecot and more than one Caldecot honor and had it all maddeningly and tragically cut short when she died of breast cancer in 2004.
Another slightly less well known thing that makes her awesome is that she was one of the first white illustrators to feature minority characters prominently in her work. That decision was influenced in part by her daughter who had married a man from the Cameroon and Trina wanted to create books for her grandchildren that featured people who looked like them.
One of the marvelous results of that is the gorgeous Bearskin. The newborn son of a miller is condemned by a king who's wiseman has just informed him that it is the child's destiny to marry the king's daughter. Refusing to believe that a common miller's son can marry a princess the king demands that his huntsman kill the child but instead the huntsman sets the baby adrift in a basket and the child is rescued by a she-bear who brings him up as her own. The boy grows up and one day hears tell of a fierce three headed dragon that is set to devour the princess in return for leaving the kingdom in piece. The boy, now known as bearskin, sets out to save her!
This really is a delightful story. Author Howard Pyle has a fun, light tone that balances out the more traditional "once upon a time" style really nicely. It seems to be a mashup of a few different fairy tales and myths, there's elements of Cinderella and the Goose Girl and even a little nod to Moses. Some slightly dark moments when Bearskin beats up a guy who doesn't believe he can kill the dragon and the bad guy is served his just desserts but they're lightened up by sing songy ambiguous lines like "and you can guess what happened to him!" so its a safe bet for younger readers. Its got a really lovely rhythm to it too so even thought its on the longer side it moves fast.
The illustrations are gorgeous of course and the inclusion of different ethnicity's doesn't feel shoehorned in at all. The kings white, the princess if black, Bearskin is Asian and the hunstman and his wife are an interracial couple and it all looks and feels very effortless.
Absolutely worth it for fairy tale fans and anyone who likes pictures you can get lost in for just hours and hours.
"golly gee whilikers she's just the best duuuuhhhh"
Okay not quite like that but I turn into a giggly fangirl and there's lots of "oohhhingg" and "aaahhinngg." It doesn't help that her primary area of expertise was in fairy tales and myths so on top of just being an amazing artist in general she was also painting illustrations for some of my favorite kinds of stories.
She was the art director for the children's magazine "Cricket" for many years, something I discovered accidentally in a used bookstore a few years ago when I came across a whole pile of them and recognized her handwriting. This was really in the hey day of children's illustration in the 80's and early 90's and she fostered many, many up and coming illustrators over the years. She illustrated over 150 books in her career, won a Caldecot and more than one Caldecot honor and had it all maddeningly and tragically cut short when she died of breast cancer in 2004.
Another slightly less well known thing that makes her awesome is that she was one of the first white illustrators to feature minority characters prominently in her work. That decision was influenced in part by her daughter who had married a man from the Cameroon and Trina wanted to create books for her grandchildren that featured people who looked like them.
One of the marvelous results of that is the gorgeous Bearskin. The newborn son of a miller is condemned by a king who's wiseman has just informed him that it is the child's destiny to marry the king's daughter. Refusing to believe that a common miller's son can marry a princess the king demands that his huntsman kill the child but instead the huntsman sets the baby adrift in a basket and the child is rescued by a she-bear who brings him up as her own. The boy grows up and one day hears tell of a fierce three headed dragon that is set to devour the princess in return for leaving the kingdom in piece. The boy, now known as bearskin, sets out to save her!
This really is a delightful story. Author Howard Pyle has a fun, light tone that balances out the more traditional "once upon a time" style really nicely. It seems to be a mashup of a few different fairy tales and myths, there's elements of Cinderella and the Goose Girl and even a little nod to Moses. Some slightly dark moments when Bearskin beats up a guy who doesn't believe he can kill the dragon and the bad guy is served his just desserts but they're lightened up by sing songy ambiguous lines like "and you can guess what happened to him!" so its a safe bet for younger readers. Its got a really lovely rhythm to it too so even thought its on the longer side it moves fast.
The illustrations are gorgeous of course and the inclusion of different ethnicity's doesn't feel shoehorned in at all. The kings white, the princess if black, Bearskin is Asian and the hunstman and his wife are an interracial couple and it all looks and feels very effortless.
Absolutely worth it for fairy tale fans and anyone who likes pictures you can get lost in for just hours and hours.
October 1, 2013
A tale from Pyle's The Wonder Clock, beautifully illustrated by Trina Hyman.
While enjoying the hospitality of a miller, a king learns from his wiseman that the miller's newborn infant will one day marry the king's own daughter. Disgusted by the prospect, the king takes the baby away and tells his huntsman to kill it. However, the huntsman's wife persuades him to abandon the child instead, and the boy is found and raised by a bear.
I was amused by the unexplained ethnic diversity, although it might raise some questions from children. The miller's many kids are all of different races, and the princess is black although her parents are not (but the wiseman is, and "a wise man doesn't tell all he knows..." coughcough). The huntsman is dressed a la Robin Hood but his wife is a 20th century Caribbean woman in a floral print dress and heart apron, whose kitchen includes dried chili peppers and Le Creuset cookware as well as wooden tankards and hanging rabbits. And although there's a king the currency is dollars...
December 7, 2012
Oh I liked this. A lot. But I am a huge fairy tale junky. We checked this out from the library today and I read with most of my children. First of all, A++++++++ for a very diverse ethnic cast of characters. The main character is Asian, and the princess in question was brown, not overly skinny and be-still-my-heart had cornrows with huge poofy naturally kinky hair. My 12-year-old Ethiopian daughter immediately noticed and said "Mama, her hair just like mine!" The illustrations in this book make it a fabulous, if very traditional fairytale.
If one is turned off my fairy tale themes (not overly strong women, men being heroes, kings, knights, dragons, etc) this could be a downer of a story for you. But my kids were delighted by the tale.
Important to note: In the first few pages a baby is sold/stolen, abandoned and left to be found or die. This could be a trauma trigger for those with kids who were trafficked or perceive their adoption as being taken for money, or with abandonment issues. We have some of that and I started getting VERY nervous on page 2 thinking I was going to have to stop reading, but the whole story quickly shifted was very obviously magical and mythical, and clearly not real, and my kids and I had a short but serious conversation on how selling babies and what happened in the story was disgusting, not OK ever and how sad that would be if it happened in real life. It was important to not gloss over that in our house, though I could see it not being a big deal in other houses.
We loved it and I wish more princesses and princes looked like the characters in this book. Gorgeous.
If one is turned off my fairy tale themes (not overly strong women, men being heroes, kings, knights, dragons, etc) this could be a downer of a story for you. But my kids were delighted by the tale.
Important to note: In the first few pages a baby is sold/stolen, abandoned and left to be found or die. This could be a trauma trigger for those with kids who were trafficked or perceive their adoption as being taken for money, or with abandonment issues. We have some of that and I started getting VERY nervous on page 2 thinking I was going to have to stop reading, but the whole story quickly shifted was very obviously magical and mythical, and clearly not real, and my kids and I had a short but serious conversation on how selling babies and what happened in the story was disgusting, not OK ever and how sad that would be if it happened in real life. It was important to not gloss over that in our house, though I could see it not being a big deal in other houses.
We loved it and I wish more princesses and princes looked like the characters in this book. Gorgeous.
February 13, 2021
I find it curious that so many reviewers find the racially diverse cast of characters "forced" and unrealistic. Yet nobody seems to have trouble believing in a talking bear who can magic up horses and suits of armor at a moment's notice.
The writing is delightful, the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous.
The writing is delightful, the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous.
December 5, 2008
This is one my children never tire of hearing--and of course the inventive and engaging artwork of Trina Schart Hyman is part of the magic of this book.
April 16, 2018
I never really cared for this story that makes little sense to me and the illustrations didn't blow me away like with the other Hymen illustrated books.
June 30, 2017
Okay story, with excellent illustrations. I'm not very familiar with Howard Pyle (although I do own his
Twilight Land
), and this story did not whet my appetite for more. The writing style is a little odd (e.g., talking to the reader in a folksy tone). I liked the comment at the end that wise people do not say all they know. Very interesting note about Pyle's work at the end.
December 21, 2025
Bearskin by Howard Pyle is a very old fairy tale written by the same author of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. Because it is a fantasy and not like today's stories, you can't appreciate it with the TV on our other distractions. This book requires your full attention and you wont regret letting your mind fall into the folklore.
The illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman are beautiful and bring the picture book to life.
The illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman are beautiful and bring the picture book to life.
March 19, 2025
Beautiful illustrations. A friend said Trina Schart Hyman was her favorite artist, so this is one of several I got from the library to see examples of her work. The story was a new one to me. I'm intrigued by it and want to go deeper in my understanding of fairy tales in general to understand this one better.
July 1, 2017
A young boy grows up to marry a princess after enduring the hardest of challenges.
January 17, 2020
Not my favorite Pyle. Couldn’t help but notice the dated chauvinistic language. Still, a clever combination of many fairy tales.
September 17, 2021
Great story and illustrations! And the princess is Black! It’s an older book so I was a little surprised. But she’s beautiful and the story is so fun. TSH cannot miss as an illustrator.
March 4, 2022
As much as we enjoy tales like this, it was very hard to read aloud.
December 12, 2022
Story is so-so but the illustrations deserve a whole star of their own
October 25, 2024
Not the most captivating Trina Schart Hyman illustrations. The story is also 3/5.
March 28, 2025
Hard to find this book, but well worth the effort! This is one my kids thoroughly enjoyed and didn’t want to stop until we finished.
August 30, 2025
Beautiful story, beautiful illustrations
June 15, 2016
I found this book after looking up other Trina Schart Hyman illustrated books and it looked interesting. The storyline was predictable and seems like it had just borrowed elements from other tales. Basically the king wants to prevent a prophecy from coming true, so he pays off the miller and takes his son and tells his huntsman to get rid of it. The huntsman's wife takes pity on the baby and they leave it in the woods and bring the king back a rabbit's heart. The baby is then raised by a motherless she-bear, who later helps the man, called Bearskin, out on his quests. He prevents the princess from marrying a deceitful steward of the king after it is revealed that he, not the steward, actually slew the dragon. The illustrations were great and featured an African princess and wise man, as well as other characters scattered through the story who were from a variety of different cultures. This was a nice change to your traditional fairy tale. I also like that the illustrator included top of page illustrations, so it made it look like a much older book. Recommended for ages 5-10, 3 stars.
March 10, 2014
This fairy tale involves a soldier that is under a spell to be bearlike for seven years. He does his penance and meets his true love. After he fulfills his promise he is able to marry his girl. I really like this fairy tale because the man has to suffer to gain his goal. Once he has reached his goal he is able to be happy with his beloved. I liked that this fairy tale went with the happily ever after theme.... those are probably my favorite fairy tales because they are how everyone wants life to turn out. I decided to read this one because it was a fairy tale that I had never read and I wanted an excuse to read something new that maybe not everyone has heard of.
October 31, 2018
Here's a random thought about the pictures, not Howard Pyle's story:
I love Trina Schart Hyman's illustrations, but I wish she wouldn't try to force the diversity of ethnicities in the characters. It just gets ridiculous. How in the world could it be possible for two white people to have a passel of kids who are so obviously from many different races?? Do it in a reasonable way and make the town multi-ethnic, instead of individual biological families.
I love Trina Schart Hyman's illustrations, but I wish she wouldn't try to force the diversity of ethnicities in the characters. It just gets ridiculous. How in the world could it be possible for two white people to have a passel of kids who are so obviously from many different races?? Do it in a reasonable way and make the town multi-ethnic, instead of individual biological families.
December 28, 2014
Great pictures but it bugs me when people (in this case the illustrator) purposely try to make the story diverse by having people different races when it doesn't make sense. For instance, the baby is white and a few but not all of his siblings are black and one looks Asian? I tell myself they're neighbor kids when I read the book. Anyway, overall the story is great and I do like the illustrations besides that one little gripe.
April 5, 2022
A hero story from Pyle's The Wonder Clock; or, Four and Twenty Marvelous Tales, Being One for Each Hour of the Day, and beautifully illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
March 26, 2010
MCL.
Someone fought a dragon with a bear that got the armor. The man went into the forest, blew one blast of the horn and then the bear came running up and said, "What do you want?" and he answered, "Some armor."
Someone fought a dragon with a bear that got the armor. The man went into the forest, blew one blast of the horn and then the bear came running up and said, "What do you want?" and he answered, "Some armor."
November 8, 2013
Very pleasant folk-tale style story about an abandoned prince who was raised by bears. I'm a big fan of Trina Schart-Hyman's illustrations, and I was not disappointed.
Nothing earth-shaking, but a sweet little book.
Nothing earth-shaking, but a sweet little book.
February 4, 2011
A unique combination of elements of Snow White, Moses, St George with a bit of Romulus and Remus, woven together in an amusing and heart-warming tale. Beautiful illustrations. Multicultural.
September 12, 2012
Notes:
story is a combo of several fairy tales and even bible ideas
story was okay, illustrations were really nice
story is a combo of several fairy tales and even bible ideas
story was okay, illustrations were really nice
July 13, 2013
Definitely liked the depiction of people of color in this story but felt the tone was a bit...off and antiquated.
August 26, 2016
This is an original fairy tale drawing a bit here from other stories ansd the Bible. Illustrations are of a world with different races all together.
July 14, 2010
Great story, fun illustrations of ethnic hero and heroine.
March 29, 2013
A strange amalgamation of different folk tales.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews