In front of Rebecca's city house, the sidewalk is smooth as frosting—perfect for roller skating with her best friend, Emily. In Maine, where Rebecca is spending the summer, there are no sidewalks and no Emily—just trees as tall as castle tops and water too cold for swimming.

The summer house is on the tail of an island, and a little girl lives down the road. Rebecca isn't interested—Amanda couldn't be as nice as Emily—until one day Amanda asks, "Would you like to be a bear?"

"A bear?"

"A Fourth of July Bear!"

Rebecca would rather be a bear with Emily, but soon she and Amanda are together all the time—being fitted for their bear costumes, sharing cookies, and waiting for the excitement of the Fourth of July parade when they will ride on Fire Engine Number One and growl exuberantly at the crowd.

Deftly evoking an island community, Kathryn Lasky tells the story of a summer friendship with tenderness and humor that Helen Cogancherry captures perfectly in her art.

From the dust jacket