The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward

One of my email friends sent me this book when we adopted one of our children, and my kids just love it.  This book is a Caldecott Medal winner.  When I see that seal on a book, I know it's probably going to be a good one.

This is the story of a boy named Johnny Orchard who lives on a farm in a valley near the woods.  His family owns the only apple trees in the valley, and they are known as Orchard's orchard.
Every year, Johnny is filled with jealousy as he sees barn after barn with bearskins nailed to them, and he doesn't understand why his own family won't hunt bears.  His grandfather had a chance, once, but he went in one direction while the bear went into another.
So Johnny decides to take matters into his own hand and heads for the woods to hunt down a bear.  What he does instead is find a bear cub, a little one who loves maple sugar as much as Johnny does.  He takes the bear home and makes it a pet.
But he soon learns bears are not meant to be pets, as the cub grows bigger, and bigger, and bigger.  He begins to roam, getting into neighbors corn fields, smokehouses, and sheds.
Soon the neighbors show up at the Orchard's house to talk to Johnny's father.  Johnny's father then talks to Johnny, and tells him the bear must go back to the woods.
Broken hearted Johnny leads him back to where he found him.  But the bear has other ideas...

This is a gorgeous book.  The pictures are so well done, you almost don't need words.  I have enjoyed reading it to my children as much as they have enjoyed hearing and looking at it.

In fact, I have a child at my computer just waiting for me to finish the review so she can have the book!!