A picture book that suggests an origin for the Ursa Major constellation, the storyline of The Great Bear depicts the life of a bear in a medieval circus. Kept in a cage all day, she is an obedient dancing bear who performs every night all her life for noisy crowds, sometimes cheering, but more often tormenting her by throwing stones and poking sticks at her. We see the backs or the silhouettes of the circus performers whose cruel carnivalesque is their livelihood. There are gaps in the simp(...)