Eve Leuzinger's Reviews > The Girl Who Speaks Bear

After many of the girls in my classroom had read and loved this book I decided to give it a try for myself. I was joyfully enthralled throughout and enjoyed the intermittent bursts of traditional tales to supplement the story line.

This story tells the tale of Yanka a girl who simply does not fit in. Not only because of whispers in the village about her height, but her belief in the wildly imaginative stories of Anatoly all seperate her from feeling a sense of belonging in her village. Until one fateful day...where Yanka's legs turn into bear legs. On a journey to break her curse, Yanka meets friends both human and not who all aid to save her. Along this journey, children are treated to rich and imaginative settings but also characters that promote values important in their every day lives.

Throughout the story, a range of characters tell Yanka a traditional tale of the forest she is in. These traditional tales follow a fairy tale/legend structure and provide children with a great example of these pieces of literature without guiding children towards the anthologies. These provide great opportunities for their own writing opportunities and can be introduced independently to the text- a great resource for doing traditional tales in Reading or English. Not only this, but the perspectives of individual characters give children the opportunity to make their own decisions about these stories and the impact they have on Yanka.

Not only this, but Yanka's journey promotes a range of values that are important for children in their time at school- including acceptance, tolerance and self worth. These challenges are becoming more and more prevalent in schools and having a novel that provides children a view on these issues without directly encouraging them to face it, enables for discussion and trust to be built. Whilst the majority of the children that have read this book are girls, I feel that the adventurous nature of Yanka could appeal to boys but would need a careful pitch.

Overall, a lovely tale based around the traditional legends providing children with a different narrative option within the classroom.