A Bear’s Life

This well-designed companion to Wolf Island features McAllister’s exquisite photographs of black bears, grizzlies, and rare spirit bears—black bears born with white fur—as they eat, sleep, travel, and play over the course of a year in British Columbia’s verdant Great Bear Rainforest. Amid photos that showcase various adult bears, as well as cubs with their mothers, Read vividly describes ursine behaviors and the ecology of their habitat: “The Great Bear Rainforest’s long, jagged coastline has many rivers and streams. Bears get some of their food from these streams, especially in the fall when the salmon return.” It’s a captivating and intimately photographed look at the lives of wild bears. Ages 5–8. (Aug.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review had swapped the roles of the book's author and photographer.