We're Going on a Bear Hunt
| Author | Michael Rosen |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Helen Oxenbury |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Margaret K. McElderry Books |
|
Publication date
|
1989 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 18259147[1] |
We're Going on a Bear Hunt is a 1989 children's picture book written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. It has won numerous awards and was the subject of a Guinness World Record for "Largest Reading Lesson" with a book-reading attended by 1,500 children, and an additional 30,000 listeners online, in 2014.
Five children and their dog go out to hunt a bear. They travel through grass, a river, mud, a forest and a snowstorm before coming face to face with a bear in its cave. This meeting causes panic and the family run home, across all the obstacles, followed by the bear. Finally, the children lock the bear out of the house and all hide under the duvet saying "We're not going on a bear hunt again." At the end of the book, the bear is pictured trudging disconsolately on a beach at night, the same beach that is shown on a sunny day as the frontispiece. Most of the illustrations were painted in watercolour. However, the six pictures of the children facing a new hazard are black and white drawings.
At each obstacle is an onomatopoeic description. Before each obstacle the children chant the refrain:
We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.
followed by:
We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!
The children, the eldest of whom is sometimes mistaken for their father, are based on Oxenbury's own children. Likewise, the dog is based on her dog. Each of the obstacles, apart from the river, are based on real life locations in England and Wales that Oxenbury knew.
The story started out as an American folk song. Rosen, who heard it, incorporated the song in his poetry shows and subsequently wrote the book based upon it. Since publication, the book has never been out of print and each year has been in the 5,000 best selling books. The publisher has stated that the book has attained worldwide sales of more than 9 million copies.
The book won the overall Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 1989 and also won the 0–5 years category. In 1989 it was an 'Honor Book' in the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards. The book also won the 'School Library Journal Best Book of the Year' and the 'Mainichi Newspapers Japanese Picture Book Award, Outstanding Picture Book from Abroad' award. It was highly commended for the 1989 Kate Greenaway Medal.
...
Wikipedia