The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

By Don Wood (1984)

Recommended age: 3-6 years old

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Review

So far out of the hundreds and hundreds books we’ve read, this is one of the very few books that could make it to a favorite based on the illustrations alone. The story is creative and entertaining, it drew my little one in really well, but the illustrations are top notch and stole the show.

You never see the bear, the mouse and the strawberry are the focus of the illustrations. The mouse is so expressive you know exactly what it is feeling and thinking and the strawberry is drawn in a way it wants to jump off the page and let you eat it. The illustrations are warm and inviting, richly detailed, filled with action, expressive and filled with emotion, and drawn with details that it takes reading a couple times to absorb. If this book had no words to it at all, you’d still know the details of the entire story.

The author is the illustrator, and when the author is a good illustrator (or vice versa), the person drawing the pictures knows the intent of the person writing the words – so, especially in this case, the two work together to build on each other.   

Favorite books are books we get pulled into, want to hear again, stories that stick with us, where we root for the characters, feel their emotions and the best of the best we not only love the characters, but we also learn something about the world or ourselves. This one does have a cute moment at the end about sharing and can be talked about with a little one to teach about sharing and being greedy – but that is more on the parent to bring that depth to the story. The best way I can summarize why this is a favorite book is at only two years old, we were reading the story for a second time, and the mouse is sitting at a table eating half of the strawberry in a restaurant that reminds me of an old school Italian pizza restaurant - candles on the table and a red and white checkerboard tablecloth. When my little one saw it, being deeply engrossed in the story and rooting for the mouse, my little one quickly leaned in and blew out the candles for the mouse so the bear couldn’t find it or the strawberry.

Cautions

The one caution I have with this book is about the bear and it depends on how the story is read to a little one. There are three characters to this story: the mouse, the narrator, and the big hungry bear. The bear is after the same strawberry the mouse is after and it can be read in a way that scares a little one or makes them giggle. We always read the bear parts in a goofy and silly manner and talked about how the bear was not a mean bear, and my little one always giggled, so it can be overcome.