We're going on a Bear Hunt....all is made clear...!

[Clawdy]

Just read an interview with Helen Oxenbury the illustrator,and she said the one everyone thinks is the dad is actually the older brother...they are ALL children.

[Taffeta]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[wonderstuff]

Did wonder, thanks, dd always asks

[flussymummy]

No way!!! Have always wondered if the older girl was the mother but never questioned the "father" - gosh! Off to find our battered copy!

[quirrelquarrel]

You're joking.

Mind is blown. I always thought it was a whole-family adventure!!

[NotMostPeople]

OMG!

We're not scared

[SavoyCabbage]

Whaaaaaat!

I have just put my dd to bed (australia) so I can't read it. It's going to be like watching 'Lost' again.

[EcoLady]

WHAT?! They are out there, in those weather conditions, with *no adult supervision at all?
*

[DorsetKnob]

The bear looks so sad at the end.

[DameMargotFountain]

that's why he hasn't got a coat on then

[cookielove]

Wow, never saw that one coming

[NoraFatimaBuffet]

I used to think 'huh, rubbish neglectful father taking them out half-dressed in that weather/mud/crossing a RIVER' in a bosom-hoickingly judgemental way. Bosom dutifully un-hoicked now...

[reindeerjumper]

So is the bear the Dad?

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Bosoms should be doubly hoicked, what were those parents thinking of? Allowing their children out like that without adequate supervision, disgraceful.

[PoppyWearer]

Oh.

I'm sure the play we went to see (don't ask me how they made it last an hour) had "Dad" in it.

Tut tut.

The bear does look sad at the end. DD's nursery added "and the bear went home to his Mummy and Daddy" to stop the kids being sad. So now I have to remember to say that too!

[lisad123]

Where were their parents when all this was happening!!
Bet mum was drinking wine and MNing :)

[Clawdy]

Helen O also said she added the "sad bear" picture because she had a thought that perhaps the bear was lonely and only wanted to play....

[HoneyDragon]

The sad bear at the end gets me every time. I told my dc's tha imaginary bears are terribly sad when they are sent away in favour of other games.

[Mathsdidi]

I didn't know people thought he was the dad. I always assumed he was a big brother and they were all children.

[Tee2072]

[crunchernumber]

I always assumed he was the Dad. Built up some tragic back story of mother dying and him soldiering on to look after his unruly brood Chitty Chitty Bang Bang style!

[piprabbit]

We had a copy of the story in an old compendium of childrens' poems, rainy day activities, short stories, songs etc. that I loved as a small child in the 1970s, well before the Rosen version was published in the later 1980s.
TBH I prefer the original version, but that might just be me being a bit 'things were better in my day'.

[timetosmile]

My DCs think that after the mud pcture, it's blood dripping off the bigger girl's foot from a tin can dropped on the beach, and a salutory message about littering

Big brother, eh?

[ABirdInTheBush]

Nah, she's messing with us. He looks about 35.

Unless he's from Daddy's first marriage to that woman.

The plot thickens...

[Leafmould]

Pip rabbit. Can you link your version?

[Pedallleur]

I thought it was Dad taking the children out for the day - but he puts them thro' a lot of hazards.

"DorsetKnob" Our two yr. old has been known to burst into tears as the bear returns home on the last page