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.

Definitely looks like a Dad - he's even got a slightly receding hairline!

Did you all know there is a sequel???

The Bear in a Cave

Saw the stage adaption of bear hunt last week and the character is the dad, not the older brother.

Adaptation even!

Not according to Helen Oxenbury.....

Sorry to necrobump the thread. But...

Just this again to my youngest (aged 3). I've always thought eldest boy was the dad. And changed my mind several times about oldest girl - whether she's a daughter or mum. There are scenes in the book where she stands with "dad" that make them seem a couple.

But other times - perhaps because of my own family - that I see it as a dad who has lost his wife. And the natural obstacles they are all facing together are metaphors for struggling on without mum/wife. It's not easy being a widowed dad.

Most of the time though I see it as a family playing an imaginary game of bear hunt and the scenes are depicting what they are imagining. And at the end you see one of the children holding the real bear - a teddy.

Yet if illustrator says it's the big brother, then that's fine by me, it's the big brother not the dad.

Grumpyrocker I love that word "necrobump"!

Ok, reviving this because I've just had a brainwave. The bear represents the children's mum who is always grumpy and shouts. She tries to join in their imaginary game but they run away because they play pretend to get away from her and her moods. That's why the bear looks dejected at the end.