We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Rating: 5 huge stars

This book has it all--a fun tale, repetition, onomatopoeias, and good pictures. It also has lots of loot that are often sold with the book, so I guess you know that a book is a great one if there is more stuff attached to it... This is one of the first books we bought when I was pregnant with Lorelei; I can't believe that that original is still in-tact, and often in Ben's bed with him.

I love that it is wonderful for girls and boys, and love that after each black and white illustrated page of "We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one, etc" there's a beautiful color page with an onomatopoeia on it: "Swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy" for the tall grass, "Hoooooooo wooooooo, hoooooooo wooooooo" for the snowstorm, for example. I always did the same thing with Lorelei, then with Ben: I'd make my rocker rock crazily for the swishy-swashy and blow in her/his hair during the snowstorm and stuff like that. (I've been known to not be as calming as I perhaps should be during bedtime, but luckily I now have kids who can put themselves to sleep. I think my job is to just get them happy at the end of the day, and then they read by themselves for 5-30 minutes before falling asleep.)

I do wonder every time I read this book why the bear walks home along the beach? Where is this story located where you can go from grass-filled hillside to snowstorm, to deep forest to...beach?! Please let me know, because I'd like to move there.