The Biggest Bear
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| The Biggest Bear | |
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| Author | Lynd Ward |
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| Illustrator | Lynd Ward |
| Country | United States |
| Genre(s) | Children's picture book |
| Publisher | Houghton |
| Publication date | 1952 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-395-14806-5 |
The Biggest Bear is a children's picture book by Lynd Ward, first published in 1952. It was illustrated using wood engravings, and won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1953.[1]
Johnny Orchard is jealous because his neighbors have bear pelts, so he goes out to find a bear to trap and kill. However, he finds a small bear who he deems unfit to kill so he brings the bear home. As it grows, it becomes a nuisance to the neighbors, so one day Johnny decides that he is going to kill it. He goes far into the woods, and is filling up his musket when the bear runs off and into a trap that has honey in it. Soon the zoo people come, and they decide to put the bear in the zoo where Johnny can visit him anytime. In the Pulitzer Prize winning The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker cited The Biggest Bear as an example of how the innate human fear of sexual violence can become manifested in literature.[2]
