Gentle Ben

Mark's older brother dies of tb, and somehow that enables Mark's mother to allow Mark to befriend a bear. It's a sweet story of a family growing together, but there were a couple of things I had trouble with:

1. Can a bear really be gentle with a human?
2. Would a mom, a mom who has already lost one son, allow her other son to make a bear his pet?

On the other hand, I loved the setting and reading about the profession of salmon fishing.