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.

We have loads of preschooly kids books that still get regularly read with my SEND kids. I've been reading these books with no break for 12 years now.....I loathe On The Way Home because it's just too fucking long. Thankfully my kids have never been overly keen on Bear Hunt ! The Hospital Dog, Monkey Puzzle, Sharing a Shell and The Snail and the Whale are the perennial faves,although we own all the Thomas books which I sometimes give in to. Jonty Gentoo is popular atm.

I think ours must be the only family in Britain to have skilfully avoided both Bear Hunt and Tiger for bedtime reading. Peebo and Tiddler and Gruffalo et al I can still quote verbatim and my youngest is 18 now.

altogether now…

He sees his mother cooking hot porridge in a bowl
And his father in the doorway with a bucketful of coal

Oh I forgot about 'Peace at Last !' And all the Large Family. We also have one called Meltdown which might be out of print now, about a toddler bunny who has a tantrum about a piggy cake. This cracks my 9 year old up, he will wander round just saying 'have the piggy cake! Want it nowwww!' And laughing hysterically for ages.

He sees the landing mirror with its rainbow ring, and a mother with a baby just like him.

Awww Peepo ! And Each Peach Pear Plum.

Your comment sounds like what my mum used to say. She used to take my brother's to the library and her heart would sink when they chose Thomas the Tank Engine books because they were long and boring.
I quite like Going on a Bear Hunt and the Tiger Who Came to Tea. Don't forget the Tiger Who Came to Tea was written in 1969 so that's why there is a bit of sexism.

@MiddleClassProblemthis is mine and my son's favourite book, i loved Jill Murphy when I was a child and they're still so relatable now! I do 'Just one of those days' when me and my toddler have been tantruming all day 😂

No! Where the Wild Things Are is one of my favourite ever books!

It's a story of a naughty child who is ignored, who retreats into a world where they have constant company and joy and are understood and celebrated. But they know they cannot stay there and need to return to the real world to face up to the things they've done; when Max leaves and the monsters say 'we'll eat you up we love you so' I think of someone so desperate to be understood and accepted it's consuming them and the wrench of accepting reality rather than the retreat of imagination. Sometimes I cried when I read that bit.

I'd had a very wild and independent childhood where I was fully accepted and understood my world (travellers) and then had to transition to a settled, typical life where everything I did was wrong and no-one liked or understood me. I swear I found reading that book to my kids actually therapeutic. I'd viscerally feel that pull and pain when I read it, but be able to understand it as an adult.

That's a very unusual take on it. I used to teach in a former mining area and the children completely identified with it. I wouldn't recognise Boden boots if I saw them.

The tiger who came to tea is so lovely. Can’t believe the hate for it. Now Mr Men books …..

That post was totally crazy.

This. I could never see the point of that book.
A favourite of small Gdcs* was Poo In The Zoo.

*And me, because it’s funny and the lines of verse do actually scan! I find it so irritating when (in children’s books) they don’t.

pretty sure she’s pouring hot porridge in a bowl and the mirror has a rainbow rim, can you tell I’m still reading it every dawn day? Joking I actually love it, especially when the mum has a nap.

I don't mind We're Going on a Bear Hunt. I feel like it's no more repetitive than other books for that age group. My daughter never chooses it anymore though because she's suddenly decided she's scared of it. The one I found really boring was Goodnight Moon. Goodnight World by Debi Gliori is much more interesting! Dinosaur Roar is pretty pointless as well.
Now she's 3.5 we at least get to read books that actually have a story. She's currently obsessed with Abracazebra by Helen Docherty.

You are of course unequivocally correct. Tedious, unimaginative, stale, lacklustre dross. Give me a Julia Donaldson any time.

My heart also sinks when DS picks it out of his books, of which he has many… I don’t think he likes it as his attention wonders off quite early in… or maybe I’m not reading it ‘right’ as someone helpfully suggested upthread 🙄