CM Magazine: Tracking Triple Seven: A Novel

________________ CM . . . . Volume IX Number 8. . . . December 13, 2002

cover Tracking Triple Seven: A Novel.

Jamie Bastedo.
Calgary, AB: Red Deer Press, 2001.
215 pp., pbk., $12.95.
ISBN 0-88995-238-8.
Subject Headings:
Biotelemetry-Juvenile fiction.
Tracking and trailing-Juvenile fiction.
Tundra ecology-Canada, Northern-Juvenile fiction.
Grizzly bear-Juvenile fiction.

Grades 6-9 / Ages 12-15.

Review by Carole Marion.

**** /4

Number 7-7-7 is a grizzly bear with a leather satellite collar clamped around her neck. To the biologists who put it there, she is known as Triple Seven.

Triple Seven's life signs are monitored and processed by ECOS-3, a satellite hovering above the Canadian North Pole, then beamed down to earth at the speed of light, ending at a relay station in Yellowknife. It take 2.4 minutes for the bear data's round trip from her collar, up to ECOS-3, and back down through all the relay stations to its final destination at the Great Bear Research Center.

If this review begins on a scientific note, it reflects the detached tone of the first two chapters of the book itself. The novel soon switches to an environmental tale of man's encroachment on nature and a young teen's struggle to win his father's favour.

Tracking Triple Seven interweaves the lives of three groups of players from varying parts of North America: Benji's privileged surroundings in San Francisco, the staff of the Great Bear Research Center in Yellowknife and Triple Seven's den on the northwest shore of Excalibur Lake in the heart of the Arctic barren lands, close to the Saber Diamond Mine.

Benji Gloss lives in style, thanks to the riches generated by the mines his father owns. Ralph's busy workload leaves him with little time to spend with his 14-year old son. Benji often accompanies him on his frequent business trips, hoping the next one will give them a chance to spend time together. But every visit leaves him in the care of yet another crew of mining staff. Traveling by limousine and personal jet does not impress Benji. Also unimpressed are the staff who are left to entertain the boss' son while trying to accomplish their duties.

Most staff condescend to Benji and resent his presence and interference in their work until Ozzie, a Bear Biologist for the Saber Diamond Mine, comes into the picture. Ozzie is well aware that Benji's dad pours millions of dollars into the program that tracks the bears and keeps them away from the Saber Diamond Mine, one of the largest and most lucrative diamond mines in the world. He realizes that making the owner happy will help guarantee the continuation of the bear project. At first, Ozzie admits to Chief Bear Biologist Vicky Sharpe: "Get (Gloss's kid) fired up over grizzlies, and it's bound to rub off on his dad." But he comes to like Benji for his inquisitive mind and his sharp wit and recognizes the loneliness and pain that Benji suffers as a result of his father's iciness.

Picture Ozzie "with a barrel chest and a six-foot frame and hairy enough to be mistaken for one of the animals he studies." Nicknamed "Scat-Man" by the teen because he looks for clues of the bears' health and habits in their scat, he sports a Viking beard in which he likes to twirl his carrot-sized fingers when he is perplexed, and in which he stick pencils for easy access. Ozzie has collared over fifty bears and knows most of their numbers by heart. His work is routine, almost boring, until he focuses on Triple Seven. All the signs show that she is going into labour. Ozzie and Vicky are the first to witness, electronically, anyway, the birth of a tundra grizzly in its natural environment. Triple Seven surprises them both by giving birth not to one, but three cubs.

And so begins the surveillance of three tiny cubs who begin life no bigger than a mouse, and the dangers that jeopardize their survival. Ozzie and Vicky's enthusiasm is contagious, and Benji cannot help but get caught up in it, as in this account of one of mean-bear Buster's frequent attacks on the mining compound and Triple Seven's den:

"Where was he last seen?" Vicky asks [helicopter pilot] Siku.

"Sniffing around where he bust through last time. They fired a couple bear bangers, and he took off over the hill."

"How do you know it was Buster?"

"Huge. Dark. Same scarred-up face."

"There!" says Ozzie. "At nine o'clock."

Benji leans almost into Ozzie's lap to see a grizzly bear running full tilt through the mushy snow. "Big sucker!"

"The biggest," says Ozzie.

Over his headset Benji hears Vicky commanding the chase. "Lower, Siku. Faster. Let him feel your wind at his back."

The helicopter plunges toward the bear. It follows its every move, rocking and rolling through the air like a sports car on a twisty track. The bear gallops through deep snow and over jagged boulders with the ease of a deer skipping through a meadow. To Benji, the chase goes on for an awfully long time, but it ends abruptly when the bear loses his footing and stumbles headfirst into a rock. "Yikes! Is he OK?"

"He's tough," says Ozzie.

Buster shakes his great head. The helicopter moves closer, almost grazing the bear's rump with its floats. Benji glimpses ugly scars on his muzzle and shoulders. The bear springs to a stand and takes a swipe at the helicopter with his mighty fore-claws.

Author Jamie Bastedo's passion for wildlife comes across on every page of Tracking Triple Seven. This is a masterfully written account of the lives of a grizzly family: the ties that bind the cubs to their mother, her protective instincts and tongue baths, their playful nature, their daily struggle for survival on the wilderness stage, the runt's attempts to keep up, and their warriness of other animals, including man. Bastedo also succeeds in reaching inside the mind of a lonely teenage boy who yearns for his father's approval while dodging the frequent blows of rejection. This rejection is evident through the plot itself, but also through the author's use of mental images to which the reader is privy. Benji does not hold back the deprecating mental thoughts about his surroundings, his heart-felt disappoint at yet another trip with his dad where he gets passed on to strangers, his yearning for the mother who died years ago, his humour and wit so evident in his repartee with a morning radio show or his reaction to the insect-like design on a company helicopter.

Does no one care for Benji? The reader does, and so do the staff who come to know him. The credit here lies with Bastedo's well-developed plot and characterization. The hope that Benji's father is next to care shines brightly in the reader's mind. That father and son come to terms with their relationship is inevitable, and Benji's coming-of-age experiences in the Canadian northern wilderness serves as the impetus for this. Whether man's encroachment on nature or Benji's story is what matters to the reader, this book satisfies on a variety of levels.

Highly Recommended.

Carole Marion is a Branch Librarian at Calgary Public Library's newest branch, Shawnessy Library. She has been working with youth and their caregivers for over seventeen years.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

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