The Big Hungry Bear Soft Cover French Edition

A beautifully illustrated book about the "JOY" of sharing. This book is very unusual. It features a large two page picture with very few words. In it we meet an adorable little mouse who never says a word, but answers the reader with his wonderfully expressive face. Unlike most books which "talk" to the reader, in this book the reader talks to the mouse. "Hello little mouse, what are you doing?" reads the first page picturing the mouse coming out of his house with a large ladder. He is going to pick a "red ripe strawberry" which he struggles to get off the vine. He laboriously carries it home where he tries to hide it from the Big Hungry Bear in the most humorous ways. He covers it with dirt, locks it in chains and marches in front of a barricaded door and puts comic glasses, nose and moustache on both himself and the strawberry. The best way to save the red ripe strawberry from the Big Hungry Bear is to "cut it in two" and "share half with me". The mouse comes to the edge of the page and with pride and joy offers the reader half. "And we'll eat it all up Yummmm" and so the bear who finally arrives (see back of book) is out-smarted.

Benefits:

* illustrations are an integral part of the text
* action in the text is reflected by action in the pictures
* illustrations create a definite mood in the story
* leads to a feeling of involvement by inclusion of statements directed to the child (share half with me)
* simple reading material in bold print with vivid illustrations makes this book very easy for children to "read" or memorize
* uses descriptive language to re-create the sensory experience of picking a strawberry and eating it
* projects human traits onto animal characters
* contains humour
* demonstrates print is meaningful as text clearly matches illustrations
Extended Thinking
* tape children "re-reading" the story in their storybook language (only after many repeated experiences with the book)" then play it
* have strawberry tea with the child - parent is the bear, the child is the mouse - dramatize the story (remember the props)
* arrange props in sequential order to match the text

*Binding: stapled
*Type: soft cover
*Dimensions: 16 pages 285 x 285mm
*By Audrey Wood
*Illustrator Don Wood