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 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.

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 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

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

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.

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 😂

@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.

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! 😍

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.

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 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

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

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.

Gosh, @WitcheryDivine , thanks for providing that link. It's really, really interesting and explains a lot that didn't quite work in my head. I hope everyone reads it. P.S. I still feel sad for the bear though and I think it was a wrong choice of Helen Oxenbury to do it (and a bit self indulgent).

I know what you mean - it kind of ruins the story as a book for little kids but makes it much more interesting and provokes discussion with bigger kids I guess. Damn artists always trying to make things more interesting! 😁

I don’t mind Bear Hunt. The ‘classic’ kids book I absolutely hate is Where The Wild Things Are, absolute shite

We also sang/chanted a version of this at primary school in the early 80s. I don't recall guns and bullets, and I can't remember if we were hunting lions or bears but I do remember that I hated it. Not sure if it was connected to me being ND - diagnosed as an adult - but the chanting back and forth between the teacher and kids and the increasing volume and sense of tension (we're not scared, we're not scared) followed by the chase and panic at the end - I guess it was sensory overload and it genuinely used to make me feel sick and terrified and I dreaded it happening. Couldn't understand why everyone else was having so much fun.

Have always avoided the Bear Hunt book because of this. Hadn't realised it is actually so different.

Yabu..best sort of adventure were these sort of imaginative ones with my dad.

🤣 I loved that one too. I used to do a pointy finger to go with 'I don't like your attitude' the children thought it was hilarious and nobody complained.

@Stolenyouth When mummy turned into a monster is fantastic! I related to it so much - the images, the 'I used to be a nice person', all of it.

I really explored it with my kids as I thought it helped them see that mums are human and get cross too! I love that the kids try and help her feel better by clearing up (the mess they made in the first place!)

I love bear hunt too - but also remember it at 70s primary school as a chant. We would have actions for it all.

Is this written by Michael Rosen? I find his writing style really odd and chaotic, but it's not for adults, so that is probably why.

Yes - exactly! And is the stripey tabby cat that they pass in the street actually the tiger?! I loved their 1960s outfits which are just as I remember my mum dressing herself and me then. I also liked the contemplative expression on the mum's face. It's a lovely book.

Thomas nearly made me lose my mind.
Loved the Hairy McClarey books—brilliant!
the one book series that nearly made me lose my mind were the kids reading books Biff and Chip. Every word was agony, and believe me, young kids can make it last a long time

My DS' class had a term focused on this book in Reception. At parents evening, his teacher said she wanted to show me a specific piece of work he'd done.

They were asked to write about why the bear might've felt sad at the end, and she said every single child wrote that he'd wanted to make friends with the children etc... then she slid DS' book over to me, stifling a giggle.

He'd written: "I think the bear was sad because he was hungry and didn't get to eat the children." 😅