Book Descriptions
for Moon Bear by Gill Lewis and Alessandro Gottardo
From The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY)
One of a kind book full of emotions and important issues, the book takes its readers through a range of emotions from laughter to tears. The story is based on Tam, a young boy from Laos who goes through a lot of changes after his father dies and he is forced to find a job to help support his family. Tam's family sets him up with a job in the city working for a moon bear bile farm. Tam quickly learns what his job entails and wants so badly to stop the cruelty the moon bears face in the hands of a “doctor.”
Moon Bear was shortlisted for the Little Rebels Award 2014. The German edition of the book (Die Spur des Mondbären) won the German Environmental Prize for Children's Literature.
Author lives in Somerset, England.
Great Britain. Originally published in Great Britain by Oxford UP in 2013. Published in the United States by Simon & Shuster in 2015.
© USBBY, 2022. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
Both torn from their homes in Laos, a boy and a moon bear cub form a deep bond in this “moving and memorable” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) tale of impossible odds and resilient hope, based on true and tragic conditions in Eastern Asia.
Twelve-year-old Tam, on a dare, ventures into a moon bear den in the mountains of Northern Laos. His goal is to steal the cub and sell it, making a fortune for his family. But the mother bear’s unexpected return upends Tam’s plan, and he barely escapes with his life. And then his life implodes anyway: his entire mountain village is made to relocate to make room for a new highway. Lured by the promise of electricity, running water, and a television, Tam’s people move to an overcrowded village, where Tam’s father is killed by a stray landmine.
Now the family breadwinner, Tam is forced to work hundreds of miles away in the city of Laos, at a moon bear farm where bile from bear gall bladders is used for medicine. It is a cruel, miserable place, and when a familiar face—the very cub he’d seen in the den in Vietnam—is sold to the bear farm, Tam knows he must save this moon bear, no matter what it takes.
Deeply and powerfully moving, Moon Bear is an unforgettable story of compassion, hope, and bravery against overwhelming odds, and brings to light the real-life, heartwrenching plight of Asia’s endangered moon bears.
Twelve-year-old Tam, on a dare, ventures into a moon bear den in the mountains of Northern Laos. His goal is to steal the cub and sell it, making a fortune for his family. But the mother bear’s unexpected return upends Tam’s plan, and he barely escapes with his life. And then his life implodes anyway: his entire mountain village is made to relocate to make room for a new highway. Lured by the promise of electricity, running water, and a television, Tam’s people move to an overcrowded village, where Tam’s father is killed by a stray landmine.
Now the family breadwinner, Tam is forced to work hundreds of miles away in the city of Laos, at a moon bear farm where bile from bear gall bladders is used for medicine. It is a cruel, miserable place, and when a familiar face—the very cub he’d seen in the den in Vietnam—is sold to the bear farm, Tam knows he must save this moon bear, no matter what it takes.
Deeply and powerfully moving, Moon Bear is an unforgettable story of compassion, hope, and bravery against overwhelming odds, and brings to light the real-life, heartwrenching plight of Asia’s endangered moon bears.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
