We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
I don’t know which one predates the other, but we found this book because we have been happily singing “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” for a couple years and I figured it was highly unlikely there was a song and a book that were unrelated.
At first glance, we were just as happy to read the book as sing the song. The illustrations are lifelike sketches and portray emotion well (too well but we’ll get there in a minute.) As we read, we could hear the song in our heads.
However, after they find the bear in the cave is where the book strays from the song and is why I would skip the book. It’s a simply written story with a sing songy repetition aimed at the younger ones, yet the bear scared my little one who is on the older side now of “little ones”. My little one talked about how scary the bear was and how “that bear looks like he wants to eat them!” for several days after reading the book. The bear in this book will definitely scare the little little ones.
Also, the concept of “hunt” had to be explained. This doesn’t contribute to the desire to skip the book, the concept of “hunt” can be explained in more than one way so it’s more of a caution and something to think about ahead of time. In our house, we’ve already discussed death and how we eat animals so it went well with our little one to explain hunt as in trying to find and kill an animal, but I can see this definition of hunt going different directions depending on personality and how a little one cares for animals and thinks about death. The other, less complicated, way “hunt” could be explained is simply looking for something, as we do with something like an easter egg “hunt”.
Cautions: The bear is scary, chases the people, and looks like it wants to eat them!! Guaranteed nightmares for little ones.
