Walking the bear - Nicola Davies

A child, a wild animal - and a life-changing encounter. An exciting new range of books in which children find solutions to problems through conservation rather than killing.

Zaki lives in northern India. His father mistreats his wife and children and the family's dancing bears - an old female and the two new cubs who are to replace her. Zaki wants all the bears to be free. With the help of his mother and sister, the old bear is taken to a sanctuary for retired bears while Zaki runs away to the forest with the cubs. There he spends months teaching them how to survive in the wild. When he returns to his family, he finds his father's cruel rule has finally been overturned. His mother has a new way of making a living - and Zaki and his sister can go to school at last.