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Original poster

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

133 replies

Clawdy · 11/11/2012 22:10

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.

OP posts:
PrinceRogersNelson · 21/11/2012 11:37

This is quite interesting about how the author and illustrator had different ideas of the book

www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/05/how-we-made-bear-hunt?INTCMP=SRCH

TwelveLeggedWalk · 21/11/2012 11:37

Is this the article in the grauniad? It's online if anyone else wants to read it.

TiggyD · 21/11/2012 11:36

I want to know how and why they go bearfoot through a river and area of mud when it's cold enough for snow?

AudrinaAdare · 21/11/2012 11:34

No coat - of course!

nickelrocketgoBooooooom · 21/11/2012 11:31

ahhhh.

that adds something to my knowledge.

well done Helen for clearing that up!

all children, no parents Grin

smokeybacon · 21/11/2012 11:30

Ooh interesting. Will read it to ds2 tonight. MY interpretation of the book is that the younger kids were being read a story by dad(or big brother) and they are acting out the story ,hence them all being under the covers at the end. They were just play acting the bear hunt. It's a much nicer way of looking at one rather awful production seen where the family return to the holiday home where their mother died and go on this ill advised adventure.

piprabbit · 21/11/2012 11:29

You'll have to wait for the next time I visit my parents - I think they still have the book tucked away somewhere never knowingly thrown anything out

FeckOffCup · 21/11/2012 11:29

I always thought the oldest "boy" was the dad and the blonde female the mum, although she does look quite young. DD agrees, she always says "oh no poor mummy" on the page where the blonde one falls in the forest.

Pedallleur · 21/11/2012 11:28

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

Leafmould · 21/11/2012 11:27

Pip rabbit. Can you link your version?

ABirdInTheBush · 21/11/2012 10:46

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

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

The plot thickens...

timetosmile · 21/11/2012 10:38

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?

piprabbit · 21/11/2012 10:35

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'.

crunchernumber · 21/11/2012 10:22

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!

Tee2072 · 21/11/2012 10:20
Shock
Mathsdidi · 18/11/2012 23:13

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

HoneyDragon · 18/11/2012 23:09

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.

Original poster
Clawdy · 18/11/2012 23:07

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....Sad

OP posts:
lisad123 · 18/11/2012 19:44

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

PoppyWearer · 18/11/2012 19:38

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!

hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman · 18/11/2012 19:34

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

reindeerjumper · 18/11/2012 19:33

So is the bear the Dad?

NoraFatimaBuffet · 18/11/2012 19:31

Grin 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...

cookielove · 17/11/2012 15:19

Wow, never saw that one coming Shock

DameMargotFountain · 17/11/2012 15:19

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