The Summer of the Great Bear
The true story of a woman and the bear who saved her.
In the heart of the Apennines, a tiny female bear cub is found motherless, hungry, and not yet weaned. Just four months old and weighing barely three kilos, her future seems sealed: a life in captivity. But at the Abruzzo National Park, biologist Roberta refuses to give up. She’s facing her own personal challenges—but sees something of herself in the cub she names Morena. “If I can make it, so can you,” she tells the bear. It’s the beginning of an extraordinary, high-risk project: to raise Morena with as little human contact as possible and prepare her for a return to the wild. Every step must be carefully calibrated. Every mistake could doom her freedom—or worse. As the summer unfolds, Morena grows, learns, stumbles, and surprises everyone. Through first-hand accounts and field reports, Giuseppe Festa weaves together Morena’s journey and the parallel path of those trying to save her—including Roberta, her fellow researchers, and the entire Park team. What begins as a wildlife operation becomes something far deeper: a story of healing, perspective, and quiet resilience.
A story by Book on a Tree
By the same author or illustrator
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The Fisher Girl
Egadi Islands, Sicily. Fourteen-year-old Scilla works as a swordfish fisher on her uncle’s felucca, the Cariddi, a traditional Sicilian swordfish-hunting boat. Her father died at sea two years earlier, and her mother left Marettimo when Scilla was still a child, vanishing without explanation. One day, during a perilous swordfish hunt, Scilla and Mansur — the lanzaturi who stands at the…
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A Waking Nightmare
The monster under the bed has never felt so real! Leo has just moved to an old house deep in the forests of West Virginia. From the first night, he’s sure something’s lurking under the bed: it smells bad, it growls, and it drags around opossum corpses. No one believes him – except Amy, his annoying stepsister. Together, they follow…
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The Night of the Stag Beetles
A group of children’s return to nature when the world powers down. Two teenage sisters, driven from their city by war and an unprecedented energy crisis, set out on a dangerous journey to their grandparents’ mountain village. Among the peaks, they find Ginepro and his band of self-reliant children — and a new way of living, built on trust, courage, and…
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The Pikes of Lake Road
Thirty-three days of secrets, dares, and the summer that changed everything. With all the spontaneity of his thirteen years, Mauri retraces the thirty-three days that have made him grow up, starting on that 14th June when his best friend, Brando, dives into the lake and never resurfaces. But incredulous grief soon gives way to doubt: mysterious notes written in Brando’s…
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Mouse Encounters of the Third Kind
A mouse, a monolith, and a mission to discover the truth about alien life — right beneath the Old Apple Tree. Urth is the last-born, smallest mouse in a family of muscle-bound fruit gatherers. He dreams of something more—something bigger than the life the colony has mapped out for him. When a strange black object appears in the forest and…
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The Children Of The Forest
The adventure of two wolves experiencing freedom for the first time. Achille and Ulisse were born wild, but raised by humans, with an impossible goal: return them to the wild without losing what makes them wolves. Author Giuseppe Festa spent fifteen months with the wildlife conservation team in charge of this ambitious project, witnessing firsthand their joys and struggles. His…
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In The Pard’s Shadow
Some creatures are meant to stay hidden. Some truths are not. Five teens. One summer. A forest full of secrets. They came to study nature. No one expected to find claw marks. Or silence. Or fear. Locals whisper about the “pard”—a creature that doesn’t exist. At least, that’s what they’re told. But something is watching. And someone is hiding the truth. As the forest closes in,…
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The Coming of The Bear
Some animals are born to be free. Some people learn to be. A story of courage, connection, and a bear’s journey home. Karhu is a bear who doesn’t know how to be wild. Viola and Kevin are two teens sent to help set him free. At first, it’s just a summer project: hike, take notes, check the collar. But then the…
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A Hundred Steps to Freedom
A gripping adventure blending suspense and emotional depth. “Breathing heavily, he turned towards the cliff. At that precise moment an eagle’s shriek filled the sky. The air near him shifted, the silhouette of the raptor darted in front of him. It seemed to incite him. ‘Come on, grab my legs. Fly away with me’.” Blind since childhood, Lucio has always…
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The Animals of Strangewood – Vol 06: The Forgetful Elephant
Welcome to Strangewood – where everything is the opposite of what you’d expect, and strange is just the beginning! TUMP! TUMP! The ground shakes in Strangewood as someone new stomps into town. It’s a little elephant called Forgetsy – and he can’t remember a thing! He doesn’t know where he’s from or how he got there. All he knows is…
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The Animals of Strangewood – Vol 05: A Warm-Blooded Snake
Welcome to Strangewood – where everything is the opposite of what you’d expect, and strange is just the beginning! For several nights now, no one in Strangewood has managed to get a wink of sleep: a mysterious shadow has been rustling through the grass, terrifying Ray, Vertigo, and even Bristle, who’s shaking from the tip of his tuft right down…
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The Animals of Strangewood – Vol 04: A Nappy for Stinky
Welcome to Strangewood – where everything is the opposite of what you’d expect, and strange is just the beginning! Bristle the wild boar is busy filing his hooves when he’s suddenly frozen stiff with fright: a deafening noise is echoing through the woods – loud enough to make anyone’s fur stand on end! Bristle and his quirky animal friends bravely…
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The Animals of Strangewood – Vol 03: Dishevelled Bristle
Welcome to Strangewood – where everything is the opposite of what you’d expect, and strange is just the beginning! So many strange things are happening in Strangewood! Nibble the dormouse has chocolate smeared all over his whiskers, Ray the owl is munching on crisps, and Ursus the bear has brewed banana tea – but there aren’t any banana trees in…
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The Animals of Strangewood – Vol 02: The Theft of the Rut
Welcome to Strangewood – where everything is the opposite of what you’d expect, and strange is just the beginning! Alarm in Strangewood, the strangest wood around: someone has stolen the River Rut! The sparkling waters of the stream have vanished into thin air, and the legendary Fizzylake no longer fizzes. Tuffy, the otter who can’t swim, is determined to find…
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The Animals of Strangewood – Vol 01: Dung Strike
Welcome to Strangewood – where everything is the opposite of what you’d expect, and strange is just the beginning! Everything in Strangewood is topsy-turvy – that’s common knowledge – and the creatures living there are as peculiar as it gets. There’s an owl who’s afraid of the dark, a squirrel with vertigo, a short-sighted falcon, and even a bear cub…
