The Bear on the Bed

Reviewed: April 8, 2004
By: Ruth Miller / illustrated by Bill Slavin
Publisher: Kids Can Press
32 pages, $15.95

Taking well-known stories and standing them on their heads is a concept that is a lot of fun to play with, and that’s what Miller and Slavin have done here, taking a bite out of Goldilocks.

“There once was a bear

with a shaggedy head

who came into my cabin

and hopped on my bed.

He wasn’t too big

and he wasn’t too small

and I really don’t know

why he came in at all.”

So says our young narrator, and that’s where the fun begins. She starts going through a list of all the things the bear might have done instead, each section ending with a new thing that he actually did do in her cabin: snoozing on the bed, jumping on the bed, dancing on the bed, swinging from the rafters, and several other things I won’t mention here.

The rhyme is contagious and the illustrations are wonderfully comical. The book should be good fun to share with an early reader.

Print Preview