The oral traditions of many of the First Nations of Western Canada and the U.S. include a story about a woman who married a bear. While peripheral details vary from nation to nation, the stories are remarkably consistent in theme, plot, and characterization. They all tell about a self-centred young woman who, after defying teachings about the respect owed to bears, pays a life-changing price for her prideful behaviour. The original story, a teaching tale, is rooted in native peoples’ traditional belief and behaviour systems. It encompasses shapeshifting (animal-to-human and human-to-animal), sexuality, betrayal, violence, and restitution.
Although this story is unlikely fodder for a picture book, Elizabeth James, a translator and interpreter of many European fairy tales and folklore, has spliced and diced the traditional “woman marries bear” stories into a read-aloud-friendly text. The result prompts several thorny but important questions. Is the story’s integrity disrespected by abridgment and sanitization? (In this case, yes.) Is there a First Nation authority or credential cited in support of the “lite” retelling of the original story? (No.) Is the original story truly a good fit for picture-book readers? (Not really.)
On the plus side, this version of the story scores high for visual appeal. Fans of illustrator Atanas’s watercolour paintings in a recent edition of E. Pauline Johnson’s The Lost Island will welcome his new double-page, single-page, and miniature images depicting the waters, meadows, forests, mountains, peoples, and animals of the Pacific Coast areas.
At best, The Woman Who Married a Bear contributes a pictorial interpretation to the original story’s many variations. At worst, its picture book adaptation diminishes the original story’s true intent, context, and depth.