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

[Clawdy]

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.

MrsJamin my eldest loves him doing it and that is now The correct way to read it!

notso my three all get along, even when their two brothers are around too. Actually reminds me of the pictures as I can see my eldest SS carrying one of the younger girls on his shoulders like that for miles.

MY DC all believe it is their Dad the family profile fits ours and before DH became a computer game bore it's the sort of fun irresponsible thing he would go and do with them.

I remember singing the song at Guides in the 1970s! We used to do it with lots of actions.

confuddled, most days I feel like the famer with the fox, the goose, the grain (and the grumpy toddler!)

Having grown up in a family where no one got on, lots of arguing, Mum regularly walking in and saying she could hear us from the next road (we were about the 6th house in) it's lovely having a family that all get on. I think my husband's laidback genes have been passed onto all 5 children, hopefully this one will have them too!

Notso

of course it's the brother, not the dad!
why would an adult be part of an imaginary game like that?

In that version
Why
Why do they tiptoe out of the cave when they've disturbed a bear and are trying to get away quickly?

"I didn't want adults around because they tend to stilt the imagination" (Helen Oxenbury) - so true!

I always thought it was a story told in bed with lots of pretending going on..

To those whose LOs find the lonely bear at the end sad - check out The Bear In The Cave, which is a sort of companion story (though not exactly a sequel) also by Michael Rosen - the bear goes to the city and meets some friends. My DS2 loves them both.

GOD I HATE THIS BOOK

DH hates that story. he thinks it's too scary. By contrast, the DCs love it.

But, it's a Dad!! With a much younger Mum. Look at him! I don't believe it. Can't believe I never got that. So I am in denial, it's a Dad.

The going out without coats in a snowstorm, wading thru the river etc, is a bit of a hint that there's no Mum there. But the Dad is the Dad.

I'M NOT GOING TO LET DS1 BABYSIT AGAIN!!

I always thought it wa a solo dad and mum was at work or otherwise absent.

Heh, well I always thought people who thought the eldest girl was the mum were barking mad. Clearly I am too.

Going back to the Tiger of Tea fame ... DD and I went to see Judith Kerr talk last month. She said she wrote it when her daughter was small, and they were sometimes bored and wished someone would visit. So she told a story about someone coming to visit, and the someone happened to be a tiger. The daughter had a lot of say in what she did and didn't want in the story, so effectively edited it, aged 2!

Helen oxenbury has cocked her illustrations up then because there is no way that looks like an older brother. Unless there is some complicated back story and he is a half brother who is at least 20 years older than his siblings.

I take exception to the attitude that mothers are unfit to lead expeditions which involve wading and adventure. or would a mother have stopped and asked for directions without feeling that her identity was fatally compromised?

Noooooooooo

Haha notso has hit the nail on the head.

An older brother just wouldn't have the authoritass necessary to keep order.

I saw that interview too, and found it v interesting. But not convinced that the brother is not actually the dad...

DD loves the book except for the last page "because the bear is too sad". Helen Oxenbury said that she modelled the picture on her friend who had suffered from depression, so he really does have a "sad human" quality

I always thought he was the older brother! My mum really scoffed at me when I told her this and said he was obviously the dad! Must make sure I tell her ...

The dad older brother does not have the dress sense of an older brother. That jumper is definately a dad jumper.

He was just very fashion forward, Leafmould - they're all wearing dad jumpers now!