To hate We’re Going On A Bear Hunt

[Shabbalabadingdong]

Just that really, I HATE it. I know it’s a children’s classic but whenever DD picks it to read my heart sinks. It’s so repetitive (which I get is the point) and annoying. It’s a metaphor for something, god knows what. The dad is just massively irresponsible, I’m surprised he doesn’t take them trudging across railway lines and MOD firing ranges. It’s just bollocks.

I felt this too and the excitement for both mum and Sophie in being in the lit up dark street.

The dad is just massively irresponsible
Isn't that the eldest brother?

Come back to me after your 3rd child ina row decides that Thomas the fucking boring tank engine has to be read every night.
Read the original stories, there's about 170 different ones.

I always thought Sophie’s mum had just been at the wine and beer and then got the munchies (hence blaming the tiger for eating/drinking everything), and was too tipsy to make dinner ….!

I long for the day they aren’t interested in Bear Hunt (which, tbf, I think I’ve now achieved). No one has said they hate reading to their children and are wishing their lives away, just that some books are crap. I’m reading famous five to DD1.

Nah too obtuse for littlies and exhausted parents. Just give us something jolly that wraps up nicely. They find out the ‘going through shit’ in real time when they go to state secondary schools.

It’s a really good story for making physiotherapy exercises fun for young children. Different actions for each verse and the over, under, around. Still find it tedious to just read though.

Excuse me??

You know what, that actually makes a lot more sense.

Loved playing famous five audiobooks to the kids on a long car drive, incredibly soporific

Isn’t there also some controversy about Bear Hunt because Michael Rosen didn’t acknowledge for a long time that he was based on an old American folk song?

I hate it

It's just so blah
Dah dah ddah dada -that out of kilter,out of sync verse.
It's the book equivalent of whining.
Make it stop!

I adore it, if only for the absolute perfection of the final page where the disgruntled bear trudges back across the beach to his cave.

I'd rather go on a Bear Hunt than have Little Rabbit fucking Foo Foo riding through the bloody forest

YANBU. It’s a shit book. I’ve no time for the very hungry caterpillar either, who got on my wick as a child. The tiger who came to tea is spectacular. Much sympathy to fellow mothers of Thomas enthusiasts- so dull.
I like Alan Ahlberg - cops and robbers, burglar bill, mr creep the crook (no wonder I grew up likening crime fiction)

I hated that book with a passion.

So poorly written. It doesn’t rhyme (fine) but it also doesn’t scan well, and to me just sounds like some Pollyanna-ish claptrap. What a fucking beautiful day indeed.

I grew up with Peace at Last and The Jolly Postman so those books I imposed on my kid.
Love a book with letters to nose about in. And peace at last is very relatable!

And ‘each peach pear plum’ & ‘peepo’ 😍

I used to like reading the Hairy McClary books and books by John Burningham to my children many years ago. Also some books about Garth Pig. We used to get books from the library so they would get read intensively while we had them but then they had to go back obviously and so I would get a break from any particular one 😊 somehow the annoying ones might never be found again😉

I like it.

At the moment I am reading my 3 year old all my old John Burnigham books…anybody a John Burnigham fan?

Would you Rather…?
Mr Gumpy
The Magic Shopping Basket

I love them.

(Also, I believe John Burnigham was married to Helen Oxenbury, who illustrated Bear Hunt. And the 5 kids in the story are based on their 5 kids. Ie, it’s the big brother, not the dad, as pp pointed out.)

I quite like the non rhyming bits, it keeps you a bit off kilter.
The hungry caterpillar was not a favourite.
I loved some of the Julia Donaldson ones but not all. Loved Tiddler. Hated Zog.
Shirley Williams was sublime. Dogger is one of a kind.

Oh yes! I love spotting all the stuff going on in the background 😂

YANBU

Why would you go looking for a bear in the first place?

John Burningham! That's the name that was eluding me. Wonderful books. How many times did we read 'would you rather'

YANBU.

Our copy got (cough, cough) lost. Oh dear, what a shame, but I'm sure there are plenty of other great books out there...

Thanks for the heads up about it being the big brother - you’re right! He’s still irresponsible.

The best thing about Tiger that Came to Tea is that many people interpreted it as a metaphor for the Nazis, given the author’s background. She was then interviewed and confirmed no, it’s just a tiger!

Also tragically lost was 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie'.