Tunes for Bears to Dance To is a young adult novel written by American author Robert Cormier that discusses themes of morality from the perspective of an 11-year-old boy named Henry, right after World War Two.

The title originates from a line in Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary: "Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.

Despite his gruffness, Mr. Hairston appears to have a special liking for Henry, occasionally giving him candy bars.

From George Graham, the supervisor of the center, Henry learns the old man, Mr. Levine, is a Holocaust survivor who lost his family to the SS.

Unable to deal with the stress of losing the headstone, his job, and his father in the same day, Henry goes to the art center.

Further into the week, Mr. Hairston tells Henry that he will let him keep the job and he will get his brother's headstone on one condition: he must destroy Mr. Levine's model village.