Holt and the Teddy Bear

Do you know how the Teddy bear got its name? When Teddy Roosevelt decided that he wanted to go bear hunting in Mississippi, his friends knew that the only guide experienced enough to escort the president of the United States was Holt Collier, the son of slaves and the best bear hunter in the South. Holt vowed that he would find the president a bear, even if he had to "lasso one and tie it to a tree." When the day of the big hunt arrived, Holt rounded up his best hunting dogs in preparation, and he and the president rode off in search of a great bear. But finding a bear wasn't as easy as it usually was for Holt, and after losing the scent that the dogs had picked up, it looked as if there would be no locating a bear that day. Still determined to catch a bear for the president, Holt continued to hunt alone. When he heard his dogs baying in the distance, he used his hunter's instinct to deduce where the bear would be. As he had promised, Holt caught the bear and tied it to a tree. President Roosevelt's reaction caused such a stir that a newspaper reporter among the hunters wrote up a story about the president and the bear, a cartoonist who liked the story drew a picture of the bear, and the rest is history. A delightful adventure for children 8-12, this book is based on the true story of the origin of the Teddy bear.

About the Author :
Jim McCafferty was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1954, and grew up in Methodist parsonages throughout the northern part of the Magnolia State. In all, he has called eleven Mississippi towns home at one time or another. He currently lives in Ridgeland with his wife, Malinda, and children, Bess and Jack. Besides his award-winning work as an outdoors and travel writer and photographer, Mr. McCafferty is a lawyer in Jackson, Mississippi. A former full-time, free-lance writer, in 1989 McCafferty was awarded first place in the Southeast Outdoor Press Association's Excellence in Craft Competition, Weekly Newspaper Column Division and second place in the Outdoor Press Association of America Writing Contest, Environment and Conservation Category, Magazine Division. His pieces have appeared in such magazines as Outdoor Life and Field &Stream . An avid hunter and fisherman, McCafferty, when not in his office, can frequently be found among the South's woods and streams. his first book, Holt and the Teddy Bear, as first published in 1991 and has been followed up in 1993 with Holt and the Cowboys.