The Bear with a Sore Head

By William Forde

In the year 2000, when this book was first published, I wanted to create a book which could be given to a child who was starting school at the age of 5 years and which could be read by them progressively until the age of 11 years when they either moved up to ‘Middle or High School’. I also wanted to mark their memory of the New Millennium with their own special book.
Because the reading age between all children of between 5 years of age and 11 is so vast, this project naturally involved the writing of a number of stories that catered for children of different chronological ages and reading abilities.

The outcome of this idea was the publication of the book ‘Bes’, which contained four interdependent stories that linked in theme. The four stories would concern four types of creatures, a bear (for 5-7 year old readers), an elephant (for 7-9 year old readers), a sheep (for 9-11 year old readers), and a New Millennium spiritual creature called ‘Bes’, who was part bear, part elephant and part sheep in both appearance and disposition(for 9-13 year old reader).

The Bear with a Sore Head’, is a story to be ‘read to’ and ‘read with’ the 5-7 year old child. Its overall aim is to remind the young reader that ‘how’ one gets out of bed each morning will depend ‘how good or bad a day’ one experiences. It is also hoped that the child will see the benefits that can be derived from being ‘positive’ in attitude at the start of the day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Forde
• Release date: Aug 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476202402

William Forde

William Forde was born in Ireland and currently lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire with his wife Sheila. He is the father of five children and the author of over 60 published books and two musical plays. Approximately 20 of his books are suitable for the 7-11 year old readers while the remainder are suitable for young persons and adults. Since 2010, all of his new stories have been written for adults under his 'Tales from Portlaw' series of short stories. His website is www.fordefables.co.uk on which all his miscellaneous writings may be freely read. There are also a number of children's audio stories which can be freely heard.He is unique in the field of contemporary children's authors through the challenging emotional issues and story themes he addresses, preferring to focus upon those emotions that children and adults find most difficult to appropriately express.One of West Yorkshire's most popular children's authors, Between 1990 and 2002 his books were publicly read in over 2,000 Yorkshire school assemblies by over 800 famous names and celebrities from the realms of Royalty, Film, Stage, Screen, Politics, Church, Sport, etc. The late Princess Diana used to read his earlier books to her then young children, William and Harry and Nelson Mandela once telephoned him to praise an African story book he had written. Others who have supported his works have included three Princesses, three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and numerous Bishops of the realm. A former Chief Inspector of Schools for OFSTED described his writing to the press as 'High quality literature.' He has also written books which are suitable for adults along with a number of crossover books that are suitable for teenagers and adults.Forever at the forefront of change, at the age of 18 years, William became the youngest Youth Leader and Trade Union Shop Steward in Great Britain. In 1971, He founded Anger Management in Great Britain and freely gave his courses to the world. Within the next two years, Anger Management courses had mushroomed across the English-speaking world. During the mid-70's, he introduced Relaxation Training into H.M. Prisons and between 1970 and 1995, he worked in West Yorkshire as a Probation Officer specialising in Relaxation Training, Anger Management, Stress Management and Assertive Training Group Work.He retired early on the grounds of ill health in 1995 to further his writing career, which witnessed him working with the Minister of Youth and Culture in Jamaica to establish a trans-Atlantic pen-pal project between 32 primary schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and 32 primary schools in Yorkshire.William was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1995 for his services to West Yorkshire. He has never sought to materially profit from the publication of his books and writings and has allowed all profit from their sales (approx £200,000) to be given to charity. Since 2013, he was diagnosed with CLL; a terminal condition for which he is currently receiving treatment.In 2014, William had his very first 'strictly for adult' reader's novel puiblished called‘Rebecca’s Revenge'. This book was first written over twenty years ago and spans the period between the 1950s and the New Millennium. He initially refrained from having it published because of his ‘children’s author credentials and charity work’. He felt that it would have conflicted too adversely with the image which had taken a decade or more to establish with his audience and young person readership. Now, however as he approaches the final years of his life and cares less about his public image, besides no longer writing for children (only short stories for adults since 2010), he feels the time to be appropriate to publish this ‘strictly for adults only’ novel alongside the remainder of his work.In December 2016 he was diagnosed with skin cancer on his face and two weeks later he was diagnosed with High-grade Lymphoma (Richter’s Transformation from CLL). He was successfully treated during the first half of 2017 and is presently enjoying good health albeit with no effective immune system.

Book preview

‘The Bear with a Sore Head’

by

William Forde

(This story content is suitable for the 5-7-year-old reading age)

Illustration by Joel Stephen Breeze

Copyright December, 2016 by William Forde

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

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Contents

Author’s Foreword

‘The Bear with a Sore Head’

Author’s Background

Other Books by this Author

For the General Audience

Romantic Drama Strictly for Adults

Connect with William Forde

Author’s Foreword

Boris the brown bear started life as a pleasant and good natured bear who was a good neighbour to all the other creatures of ‘Marfield Meadow Vale’. Then, suddenly, he turned into a nasty bear with a sore head who made his neighbour’s lives a misery. All the other creatures try to discover what brought about this drastic change in the bear’s behaviour, so that one they find out, they can change Boris back to the pleasant bear he once was.

William Forde: January, 2017.

‘The Bear with a Sore Head’

‘Boris the Brown Bear’ was a most troublesome bear. Over the years, he’d become an inconsiderate, ill-mannered, and bad-tempered creature who made his neighbours lives a misery.

Boris stood 2 metres tall and weighed half a ton. When Boris growled in anger, his neighbours shook in fear. Nobody wanted to live near him or to be in his company.

Boris lived in ‘Marfield Meadow Vale’. This was an upmarket neighbourhood in the North American National Park. ‘Marfield Meadow Vale’ had been built to house well-to-do, well-mannered creatures who were responsible enough to look after themselves without