Ebony Bear – A Nurturing Ursine Learns a Lesson
Paperback. 10″ x 8″. Full Color. 30 Pages.
Meet Ebony, a black bear and new mother of three cubs, and take a peek at their adventures as they learn to share the world with humans.
“Enchanting!” “I love how she tells the story, very engaging, and weaves into it lessons for the bears and for people too. The world needs this series . . .”
— Leslie T. Sharpe, author of The Quarry Fox: And Other Critters of the Wild Catskills
Our Reading Community
Ebony Bear is the first in a series of wildlife books that are based on research gathered from various sources, including scientific papers and websites, and communication with scientists and experts. DiBenedetto uses her personal knowledge and experiences to tell empathetic and compassionate stories of animals so that children and their parents will regard wildlife with interest and respect. DiBenedetto is familiar with children and what they enjoy reading, and her writing is attentive to their natural intelligence and curiosity. She has spent the past 40 years reading bedtime stories to her children, their children, and various other children. As a result, her books are for parents as well, who might in one night have to read a book five or more times – her book includes little nuggets to maintain their interest and sanity.
Illustrator
Fabia Wargin is an illustrator and graphic designer. She comes from a family of artists and book lovers and grew up drawing, reading and running around outdoors as much as possible. She studied fine arts, photography, and communication design which led to a career in design that has been sprinkled with her illustrations. Ebony Bear is Fabia’s children’s book illustration debut. The story and intent of the writer, Margaret DiBenedetto, inspired Fabia to create pictures for small girls and boys that are fun but also conjure a sense of what life can be like for black bears.
Follow Fabia on Instagram
Author
Margaret DiBenedetto is an environmentalist who has spent decades observing and working with wildlife and studying golden and bald eagles in New York State. She grew up on a dairy farm in the Catskill Mountains where she still lives with her husband and two very loud dogs. Her hobbies include snorkeling, baking lasagna for her family, and native gardening (for the birds).
Wandering the fields, streams, and forests in her childhood made her a biologist; she earned a Bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State University where she also studied Creative Writing with Texas Poet Laureate Dr. Paul Ruffin.
She has served on the Board of Writers in the Mountains, and is currently a Trustee for the Michael Kudish Natural History Preserve. She is also the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development.
DiBenedetto is a past contributing editor to The Times of Halcott, and a current contributor to the Andes Gazette.
Ebony’s Den
The icy surface of the snow crunched under the weight of my snowshoes. Just loose enough to get a good grip; firm enough to keep me on top of the two feet of late winter snow that had fallen, begun to melt, then iced up again. It was a good crust.
I’d parked at the top of the road and headed down a wooded hillside, then turned to level off at a field before re-entering the hemlocks. I decided to look at my map and take a drink of water before continuing on. As I stood, appreciating the view, I heard a distinct hissing. Very familiar, it seemed to be that of a Canada goose. Why would a goose be here, I wondered. I looked up in the sky, then behind me, completely flummoxed. Again, the hiss. Coming from the ground.
I noticed the black space of a hollow beneath a downed tree two feet from the tips of my snowshoes. The hiss came from under the tree. Aha. A bear den.
Wild Life Stories 