This untamed creature is a yearly visitor to the wooded hill behind the author's Vermont farm. In addition to the bear, readers meet a bobcat, a red fox, a grouse and several other woodland animals. The lean, powerful text uses an intimate, conversational tone to tell of typical bear ways: the bear drinks water from a spring, claws a tree trunk and follows forest trails 'just to see where each one leads.' Each of the full-page watercolors is vibrant, translucent and strikingly composed.