The Tale of Cuffy Bear by Arthur Scott Bailey has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine. It is a book in the “Sleepy-Time Tales” series.
The Tale of Cuffy Bear by Arthur Scott Bailey has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine. It is a book in the “Sleepy-Time Tales” series.
Cuffy is a bear cub who lives with his family in a fine, solid cave in the side of Blue Mountain. While Cuffy is not a bad bear at heart, his propensity for getting into trouble often concerns his parents. This tale takes Cuffy and his family through a year of life.
As soon as the bears wake up from hibernation, Cuffy succumbs to his youthful curiosity. In his efforts to experience new things, Cuffy has painful run-ins with a porcupine, hornets and an angry mother eagle because he eats her eggs. He frequently comes home sore and often in tears.
One day Cuffy meets another bear cub who tries to teach him how to box. Cuffy returns home with his best trousers torn and muddy. Cuffy samples new foods such as pig and Farmer Green’s lunch of bread, doughnuts and custard pie. He loves the baked beans most of all, until the pot gets stuck on his nose and Mrs. Bear has to remove it.
Cuffy also discovers sweet boiling maple sugar, on which he burns his paws. When the little bear gets trapped on a sheet of ice in the lake, his father pushes him in so he’ll learn to swim. The family survives a forest fire before growing tired and hibernating once more.
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Cuffy’s parents try to steer him in the right direction and teach him to make wise choices. They laugh with him or comfort him after his mishaps. Cuffy’s father pushes him into the water so the cub will realize he can swim. Cuffy’s parents sometimes cuff him for hitting his sister.
Cuffy got his name for the way he frequently cuffed his younger sister, Silkie, with his paws and made her cry. When a cub named Pete tries to teach Cuffy to box, he hits Cuffy hard enough to make him cry and groan. The violence isn’t graphic, and Cuffy learns that hitting isn’t appropriate behavior.
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