Hugh Glass, Mountain Man

Children's Literature - Jan Lieberman

Another story that presents a moral dilemma and is guaranteed to keep you riveted to your seat is Hugh Glass, Mountain Man. After surviving a brutal mauling by a grizzly bear, this larger-than-life man is determined to take revenge on the two trappers who had volunteered to stay with him, but then left him alone to die. They took with them his gun and supplies. One of those men was a young Jim Bridger. The question is - do these men deserve to die since Glass recovered from his wounds? How much of a lesson do they need? This is a tale of wilderness survival, deep human emotions, and an historical adventure. Read pages 7 to 9 aloud if anyone tells you that all books are boring.

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-- A fictionalized account of a true story. Much older than the other men in the exploring and trapping party he joined in 1823, mountain man Hugh Glass was mauled by a grizzly bear and left by his companions to die. The now famous account of Glass' harrowing recovery and equally harrowing and heroic 200-mile crawl to civilization is so astonishing that it is still told, gripping the attention of hearers and readers. Glass lived adventurously before and after the grizzly clawed and chewed him but there are few verifiable facts about his life. Using what he could find in adult biographies and other sources, McClung has fleshed Glass' life into a vivid story. --George Gleason, Department of English, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield