Bearstone

Bearstone

by Will Hobbs

Narrated by George Guidall

Unabridged — 4 hours, 8 minutes

Bearstone

Bearstone

by Will Hobbs

Narrated by George Guidall

Unabridged — 4 hours, 8 minutes

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Overview

Growing up without parents and without schooling, 14-year-old Cloyd is trouble-trouble to himself and everyone else. Sent by his tribe to a home for Indian boys, he is alone and half-wild in remote Utah canyons. As his feeling of isolation turns to desperation, he runs away to find even more trouble. When Cloyd is found and taken to live with an old rancher, he begins to explore the countryside. High in the majestic Colorado mountains, he finds a small carved turquoise bear in an Indian burial cave. Secretly renaming himself Lone Bear, Cloyd calls upon his ancient ancestors to give him the courage to accept an old man's love and friendship. Bearstone is an IRA/CBC Teachers Choice Book, and a Notable Children's Trade Book in the field of Social Studies. It also won the Mountain Plains Booksellers Association Children's Book Award. Veteran narrator George Guidall masterfully grasps Will Hobbs' award-winning story.

Editorial Reviews

School Library Journal

Starred review. Far above other coming-of-age stories.

Voice of Youth Advocates

Bearstone is destined to achieve the status of Hinton's Tex.... This story has something for everyone....

From the Publisher

School Library Journal, starred review Far above other coming-of-age stories.

Voice of Youth Advocates, 5Q 5P review Bearstone is destined to achieve the status of Hinton's Tex.... This story has something for everyone....

JUN 97 - AudioFile

Live in a good way” is an ancient Ute saying, which permeates this beautiful story of Cloyd’s coming of age as he experiences white man’s cruelty and humanity to Native Americans. Cloyd is 14 and troubled--he’s matched up with Walter, a former rancher who’s lonely and depressed after losing his wife. The ever-wonderful George Guidall relates the story like an old-time storyteller. He makes Walter, an old fellow filled with wisdom and sage expressions, sound as if he’s addressing Cloyd and reader alike. It’s possible to hear Cloyd evolve as he grows up, experiences a bear hunt, makes adult decisions, and learns and teaches the lessons of life. The award-winning story couldn’t be improved in its audio presentation. S.G.B. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID: 2940171023782
Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date: 05/22/2009
Edition description: Unabridged
Age Range: 8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Cloyd stood a step from the door of the hospital room. His father was in that room. "Are you sure you have to see him in person to deliver those flowers?" the nurse asked.

"They won't pay me unless I deliver them in person."

Cloyd didn't think it would work if he told her who he was. He had run away from the Ute group home in Colorado and hitched all the way to Window Rock, Arizona, to find his father. That's where the Navajos kept the records about everyone in the whole tribe, and there he found out that yes, there was a Leeno Atcitty, and his address was listed as the Indian Health Service Hospital in Window Rock. He was a patient there.

Cloyd wondered how he might get into his father's hospital room to see him. If he told them who he was, there would be trouble because he had run away. Then he had an idea. He used the last of his money to buy some flowers.

For years Cloyd had been asking every Navajo he happened to meet if they knew a man named Leeno Atcitty. "What does he look like?" they'd ask. Cloyd couldn't tell them; he'd never known his father. He'd grown up without him, with only his sister and his grandmother. Cloyd knew just two things about his father-he was a Navajo, and he had disappeared after Cloyd was born. Nobody had seen him since.

When Cloyd was little, he used to talk to his sister about how badly he wanted to find his father, but she didn't seem to need to know him at all, so he had kept his dream inside. In the year since he'd been sent away, the more lonely he became, the stronger his desire grew to find his father. Now here he was with his heart pounding, following the nurse downthe long hallway to his father's room.

The nurse stopped short of the door and said, "Why don't you let me take the flowers in."

Cloyd didn't know if this was going to work. He wasn't a good liar. He said, "I'm supposed to deliver them myself."

"I've never seen you here before. Who did you say you're working for?"

He knew he had to do something quick. Like a rabbit in the sagebrush, Cloyd was into the room.

What he saw terrified him. This wasn't even a human being. It was more like a shriveled-up mummy attached to a bunch of tubes. One went into his nose and one went into his arm. A third came out from asked under the sheet. How could this be his father? Was it even alive? "What's the matter With him?" he asked as evenly as he could.

"Have you ever heard of the expression 'brain dead'? It means his heart and his lungs still work, but his brain is ... well, dead. I tried to tell You, it's not a pretty sight. He won't know about the flowers."

Cloyd had to keep talking, or the nurse would get onto him. He had to put away his terror, not show any emotion on his face. He was good at that. "How did this happen?"

'Car accident," she said. "I don't know any details."How long has he been like this?""Four years.',

"Are you sure he's Leeno Atcitty?"

"Yes, of course."

"Where's he from?"

"I think I heard that once ... Utah, I think. Monunent Valley. I wonder if this could be the man you were looking for. Nobody ever sent him flowers before. "

He knew it was his father. His father came from Monument Valley. Besides, the Navajos listed only one Leeno Atcitty,

Cloyd shrugged. "The people that ordered the flowers said he had a broken leg. Is there another Leeno Atcitty in the hospital?"

lie sneaked one last look at his father. The terror returned full force. How could this ... wrinkled, shrunken shell of a human being be his father? He forgot to wait for her reply. He turned and left without looking back.

"No," she said after him. "I'm sure there isn't.... There must have been some mistake."

He threw the flowers in the trash.

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