Bears are my favorite animal; to me, this book was a disappointment.

This book falls into the trap of many nonfiction books, in that it does it's job and nothing more--I'm familiar with her editor of Norton and know the general nonfiction style, and am not a fan of it (even though I'm a big fan of him). One could even argue that it doesn't even do it's job, since Dickie barely sees any bears. I was looking for a book that was denser, but it was quite fluffed up with random anecdotes that didn't tell me a whole lot about anything. I'm just not sure how this book is any different from information I could find in the most basic article or a Wikipedia page. The writing itself was kind of trite and uninteresting too. :(

(Edit: Many of the positive reviews of this book are from people who have never even heard of all the Bears species--which is totally fine, but is clearly speaking to the intended audience. To me, the ideal reader of this book is someone who (a) has never heard of a "bear" and has no idea what it is and (b) has also somehow attained a high school reading level.)