The Bears' House

The Bears' House - Marilyn Sachs

The titular Bears' House is a doll house built for Fran Ellen's teacher when she was a girl. It is lovingly described and Fran Ellen wants little more than to be able to finish assignments ahead of her classmates so that she may play with it. Her teacher is retiring though, and her teacher is going to pick a classmate to take the Bears' House home at the end of the year. Fran Ellen knows it won't be given to her. Fran Ellen isn't the smartest, isn't even well liked, so she wants to spend as much time as she can before one of the only bright points in her life goes away forever.

Her father is gone and her mother is catatonic. Her older brother instructed Fran Ellen and her siblings to carry on as if nothing is wrong so they don't get separated into foster homes. These are very young children. Fran Ellen longs to dote on her baby sister, but she wants to escape from everything else. Enter some really sad imagination sequences where the Bear family are everything her real family isn't.

Pretty much all I remembered about this book, unfortunately, was that Fran Ellen sucks her thumb and she smells bad. Her responses to the world are not in her best interest. When I first read this in 3rd or 4th grade it made me very uncomfortable. As an adult, the deep level of failure of Fran Ellen's home-life, her inevitable bottom-position on the totem pole of kiddie politics, and her limited options for escape are depressing. Marilyn Sachs doesn't leave much room for a happy ending.

But there's more! I may get to it someday when I feel too positive about things.

 

The Bears' House

 

Next: 'Fran Ellen's House'