Tunes for Bears to Dance To: What the Title Means!

Everybody has been asking what the title of Tunes for Bears to Dance To means.  Well, finally, we finished the book and we are ready to talk about it.  At first we watched a video about a group of people in India who work to free "dancing bears."  Here is the video:



Next, we talked about our sixth and final skill:  Good readers gather clues that help them understand the meaning of the title.

We wrote down some of the clues that we discovered from watching the video:

* The dancing bears are treated cruelly by the owners.

* The bears are controlled by ropes and nose rings.

* The bears are tortured by the owners for their own profit.

We then discussed how each of those clues related to the book:

* Mr. Hairston treats Henry cruelly.

* Mr. Hairston controls Henry through threats and blackmail, rather than by ropes. 

* Mr. Hairston tortures Henry for his own entertainment.  He enjoys the fact that Mr. Levine's village has been destroyed.  Also, he enjoys the fact that he has made Henry do these bad things and that he's slipped over to "the dark side."

Finally, we set up our writing to make a response:

An author doesn't randomly pick title names.  This is especially true in Tunes for Bears to Dance To by Robert Cormier.