You probably know of, have read, or at least have heard of the children's picture book classic We're Going on a Bear Hunt. But did you know that it almost was not about a family going on a bear hunt and encountering many obstacles along the way?
"I thought it could be a bit like Carnival," says author Michael Rosen. "There could be all sorts of different characters — giants and monsters and kings and queens — and they'd all be walking after a guy in a bear suit." At the end, Rosen imagined, the guy in the bear suit would take off his bear head and all the other characters would say, "Oh, it's a guy in a bear suit," and then run away.
"It wasn't a great idea, I confess," says Rosen. Luckily, illustrator Helen Oxenbury didn't pay any attention to it.
"I did completely the opposite," Oxenbury says, "I just made it a family who went on a bear hunt." In the family there's an older brother, his four younger siblings and the family dog, who was based on Oxenbury's own dog at the time. "Everybody thinks that the older boy is the father," says Oxenbury, "but actually, I didn't want an adult in this adventure. I think children like the idea that they go on adventures without parents and adults."
The family travels through big, tall grass — Swishy swashy! — a deep, cold river — Splash splosh! — thick, oozy mud — Squelch squerch! — as well as, somewhat improbably, a snowstorm, a dark forest and a gloomy cave where (spoiler alert) they find a bear.
"What I think probably attracted me mostly to this story is the variety of landscapes," says Oxenbury. She chose to use watercolor for the illustrations, she says, "because it's a very English way of painting landscapes."
She also illustrated half of the pictures — the parts where the family is considering how to overcome the various obstacles — in black and white. "It sort of represented the waiting and the thinking of how they're going to do it," she says. Once they've decided what to do — as in life, the answer is always "We've got to go through it!" — Oxenbury brought back the color.
"When I came to see Helen's illustrations of a family on holiday, as it seemed to me, I was baffled," remembers Rosen, "and wondered why the family didn't seem very equipped to go bear hunting." The siblings are not, for example, wearing swimsuits appropriate for crossing rivers nor do they have winter coats for surviving a snowstorm. They don't even seem to have water or snacks.
What that does, says Michael Rosen, is leave space for the idea that maybe, possibly, the family is only imagining their adventure. "If you want to, you can say that the thinking bits are real and the color bits are imagined," Rosen says. After finding the bear in the cave, the family turns on their heels, runs back home and climbs into bed — where, careful readers might notice, there's a teddy bear. "You're not quite sure if it was all true or not," Oxenbury says.
And that's ok! "I think sometimes we underestimate the fact that we can give children ambiguities and that's fascinating for them," says Rosen. "We can make mysteries for young children and that's great."
We're Going on a Bear Hunt has sold more than four million copies since it was published in 1989. Today, Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury are both world-renowned for their work writing and illustrating books for children, but for a long time Bear Hunt was their first and last book together — until recently. Their second children's book is coming in September.
Oh Dear, Look What I Got! is about a boy who goes from shop to shop asking for normal things like a carrot, or a hat, and instead amassing a collection of animals.
"I went to the shop to get me a cake," Michael Rosen writes. "Oh dear, they gave me… a snake!"
"Oh dear, look what I got! Do I want that? No, I do NOT!"
"The animals get to know each other," he explains. "So it all gets very matey. I mean, they become a posse, really." And yes, there is a bear.
Helen Oxenbury says she liked Oh Dear, Look What I Got! because it was "different, and would suggest that I could do slightly different illustrations, which I have done." The characters float on the page against a white background, "so all your attention is drawn just to the cat or the parrot," says Rosen. "And as you might expect with Helen, I'm looking now at a parrot and it's squawking. I mean, the parrot is so squawky, it's almost squawking off the page."
"I read it to my grandchildren," Helen Oxenbury says. "Now, if you say to them, 'Would you like some more broccoli on your plate?' They say, 'Do I want that? No, I do not!'"
OH DEAR, LOOK WHAT I GOT! Text copyright © 2025 Michael Rosen. Illustrations copyright © 2025 Helen Oxenbury. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA on behalf of Walker Books, London.
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