A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

A Boy and A Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Publisher: David Fickling Books
Release Date: June 12, 2012
Source: Baker and Taylor ARC program
Interest: Middle-Grade

A boy on his own seeks to cross a body of water from a bear in a small boat. The bear is very proud of his boat and assures the boy that the crossing will take no time at all. Unfortunately, "unforeseeable anomalies" occur and the crossing takes much longer than expected.
I was looking forward to reading this book when I read the description. I thought it would be a quick, fun, and light read that I would be able to recommend to reluctant middle-grade readers. It was a quick and light read, but it was not fun. All the "unforeseeable anomalies" became stressful to read. The boy and the bear ran out of food and water (and by the end of the book, that was the least of their worries).
I don't expect a happy ending for all the books I read, often the best stories don't have a happy ending, but I thought that this book deserved a happy ending because of all the trials and tribulations that the two characters went through. But, I was disappointed. I don't consider the ending to be happy, in fact, I didn't think it was much of an ending at all. I hope that the author didn't leave it as a cliffhanger in hopes of writing a sequel.

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