The Chronicles of Stinky Cove · Book 5

Bramble

The Bear Who Was Afraid of Everything

Bramble is afraid of thunder, bees, crows, open ground, the dark, and water most of all. She is also a bear.

She is a yearling black bear in the one week of a Maine spring when there are no leaves on anything and a hillside has nowhere to hide. Her brother is afraid of nothing. Her mother answers questions by doing things instead of saying them. And a brush fire that was raked down to a washtub of coals at half past eight has just found the wind.

Lucy Trundy is seven, the smallest member of the Stinky Cove Wildlife Club, and she does not go near the water. She has her reasons. When three bears end up on a ledge above the narrows with the fire behind them and the whole town on the shore road, everybody is watching to see what the bears will do. Lucy is watching the one who is scared.

Eleven days, one fire, and a rule that had to be painted by somebody who knew.