Gift of the Bear

Edward Abbott faces moral peril as he aids Johnny Bear, confronting prejudice and a harsh colonial law.

Gift of the Bear is a middle-grade novel set in the New England colonies in 1755. This timely and little-known story of our country’s colonial past mirrors the life and trauma of immigrants today. At the onset of the French and Indian War, Edward Abbott befriends an exiled boy, Johnny Bear, who has been separated from his family during the deportation of French Acadians in Nova Scotia. Edward is deeply moved when he learns about the horrors of the Acadian expulsion and vows to find his new friend’s family. He teaches Johnny Bear English and helps him cope with townspeople’s prejudice and discrimination. He learns it is against the law for Acadians to leave their assigned town, then hears of a plan to ‘farm out’ Johnny Bear as a slave. Edward must choose between obeying the law or saving his friend from a dire fate.