To hate We’re Going On A Bear Hunt

Yep. It was a Peppa book that got lost (a long way under the settee).
It had a fairly low word count altogether but even so I could swear that somehow, the 2nd half of a different book had got stuck to the first half, such was the completely disjointed sense of continuity.

Yes she laps it up at the moment much like the “tiger” did with daddy’s beer 😁

I might be wrong but I’m sure I read somewhere that that was the illustrator, Helen Oxenbury, she added that picture at the end and it changed the whole feel of it.

without that it would feel quite cosy at the end wouldn’t it! Def makes it more interesting but also sad.

oh yep here we go: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/05/how-we-made-bear-hunt

We're not allowed Bear Hunt in my house because DS1 is scared of suspense, but I'd be delighted to read it instead of Peppa Goes to Fucking London, which he received as a present, and which I've been made to read for five nights ina row despite trying to hide it. That'll teach me to go to London for the weekend. Children's books which don't credit the author on the cover are always always utter shite.

I’m glad you like it and I’m probably weird ie well read in feminism but all I see is this boy killing cutting up the dolls and the girl and her future daughter just patiently building new dolls. It is beautiful but it feels like the way that when men kill women all we can do is patiently try to grieve and rebuild without tackling the problem that caused that loss.

I’d prefer the story if the ghost of Jackie the Backie haunted the heck out of that boy until he threw his scissors into the sea and learnt the error of his ways.

I worked in a preschool for 6 years and LOVED to read Bear Hunt aloud at Story Time, such a nice one to get everyone feeling part of a group and tackling something together - all chanting 'WE'RE not SCARED!', although one's face while reading shows we ARE a bit unsure (it's a BEAR after all!) - but we are all together, we can handle it, we can handle ANYTHING.

I disliked intensely Where the Wild Things Are, though on reflection it probably works better with an older age-group. despite supposedly being suitable for '2-6.'

Shirley Hughes I used to love to read to my own children, because you could take time dwelling on every page, discussing and pointing out things in the beautiful illustrations, but it didn't work so well in a group setting, where you tend to need big bright pictures that everyone can see and a simple, repetitive text children can chime in with.

Mind you, I'm talking about 20 years ago! I expect there's all kinds of new and wonderful stories for reading aloud now. I'm about to find out as my first grandchild has just been born! 😍

@Dominoeffecter Fireman Sam was so dull that in our house we invented a more interesting backstory.
can’t remember it all now but Norman was Sam’s secret love child with Mrs Price and was the one setting all the fires.

One day it will be a distant memory.
Like that joyful day when your kids state they now hate Pepper Pig and Mr Tumble and tou never have to watch or listen to it again.
Then you miss it 😂

Really? You've never heard of Michael Rosen? His first book of children's poetry was published in 1974. He's an incredibly well known person in his own right (he presents programmes on Radio 4 and everyfink). He doesn't need to be well connected. I would like to ask him what he thought he was doing by leaving the poor bear on his own at the end though.

I love it! My children are teenagers now but we still quote it when out on big walks or hiking holidays.

In my head it’s always “we’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going to find a big cunt”, luckily it wasn’t a hit with DD as I might have struggled. I don’t think Michael Rosen wrote it, it’s a version of an older story 🤷‍♀️

I like both the Bear Hunt and Tiger who came to tea I'm afraid!

I know the gender stereotypes in Tiger are a bit old fashioned, but I like the absurdity of the tiger showing up and eating everything - and I think kids like it too.

I also think of it when things have gone a bit wrong somehow - like when I locked myself and DS out by mistake on a freezing winter evening after nursery and DH was miles away in another city. I took him to the park and then we ate random snacks from the Tesco on a bench in the driving wind. I hope if he remembers it that DS thinks of it a bit like the tiger incident - that funny time we ate biscuits in the dark on a park bench, rather than as an awful memory of being cold and Mummy being stressed.

An author I really dislike is Anthony Browne - horribly sinister stories with creepy illustrations. Yuck.

And I agree with a previous poster that the big Nutbrown Hare really needs to dial back on the emotional manipulation. He has overtones of Mother Gothel:

• Love you more
• Love you most

Haha! I always read that as mum being a secret daytime drinker and binge eater who has to come up with some sort of excuse for all the beer being drunk...
But I love the illustrations especially the one at the end where they go out to eat sausages. Plus it's written by Judith Kerr who gave us the amazing When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.
Going on A Bear Hunt wasn't my favourite though my boys loved it.

I liked Bear Hunt - but not a bedtime story as we’d do the actions I did at Brownies and Guides in the 70s. I had no idea someone had claimed it as original.
My youngest got some “books with a message” from Bookstart and I tried to lose those.

@Canthelpmyselffromjoiningin I have to change the Tiger who came to Tea to make it less offensively sexist. In my version mummy wfh like me and cooks all of their supper, not just Daddy's. Also they all go shopping the next day. It helps a bit.

The version that I remember chanting, after "We're not scared.." added the lines "We've got guns'...(Silly high voice) And bullets!"
This wasn't just made up by 6 year olds, it was taught by our teachers at the time. We also reversed every part and its actions much faster with the point of running from the bear.
If this was the folk version, it's probably best Michael Rosen made the move to leave out the guns and bullets.

🤣🤣🤣
I'm glad you posted that... A favourite Sean Lock clip for me 😂🐅🐯

I know what you mean about T the T Engine. My children LOVED it because they'd just made videos with Ringo Starr narrating them...weird, or what? It's got its merits but of course it's dated in its attitudes.

But we do quote the Fat (oh dear..QED) Controller sometimes. He goes on a journey and halfway through says 'We've been to the castle, now let's go to the mine!' and off they go to a coalmine.

This gets said in our family when we've done something fun and now we have to get down to duty...

And Judith Kerr has said that's a load of old cobblers!

I feel sorry for the lonely bear at the end of Bear Hunt. What were the family planning on doing when they hunted the bear - play with it/ kill it?

I don’t mind the Tiger who came to tea. But it can’t be her brother - doesn’t it even refer to Daddy coming home?

The book I HATE and gave away immediately is Goodnight Moon. Hate the colours and the old lady’s bowl of mush, ugh.

LOVE The Gruffalo - so clever and sweet and good rhyming.

I'm ok with Bear Hunt. The one I couldn't stand was Zog. He went to school for far to many years.

I really liked Little Rabbit Foo Foo. My DDs had it at nursery too and some of the parents were upset that their children started telling them "I don't like your attitude". I'm not sure if they thought the nursery staff were saying that to the children or just objected to the phrase in general.

I didn't mind bear hunt too much apart from the snowstorm - the other noises were fun but not that. I hated that page so got very good at skipping the two pages where it was mentioned.

I was working for a heritage railway when my daughter was first encountering Thomas. She had a long lecture on track laying and why they would not have bricked Henry up in that tunnel and got him out so quickly... Also various safety critical tasks being neglected (but I loved the books). The new square books are a very mixed bunch but we loved the originals.

I like it (and I'm easily irritated by popular choices). I hate the Gruffalo, 90% of Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson drives me nuts and I hate preachy things like Elmer.

But I do think Bear Hunt has merit. Yes, it's repetitive - children do like and need that. And though my children are grown up now we still sometimes quote from it when discussing life's problems 'We can't go round it, we can't go over it - we'll just have to go THROUGH it!'

We get screwed on pay every time, but we have a very nice pond with diving board and sauna, so both us and the management know that none of us are actually going to leave! The pond is so nice no one will even go on strike because then we couldn't use the sauna

All the tiger (who came to tea) talk just makes me think of this highly superior version from the fabulous late Sean Lock.