Greetings for December 2025! Doing Library Storytimes over the year has led to a fascination with words & illustrations and more in picture books for young children and how they work, both the new and the old favourites. This month I intended to write about
‘OH DEAR, LOOK WHAT I GOT!’, Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury’s 2025 collaboration, but somehow their 1989 picture book hit,
‘WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT!’ padded in on its big paws too.
BEAR HUNT is Rosen’s retelling of a popular summer campfire group chant, sometimes called ‘Lion Hunt’. The structure is simple: one main voice leads with the story line, then all the listeners join in, chanting that ‘I’m not scared’ refrain, then copying the sound effects and actions at each stage of the troublesome journey. Within this story framework, the group leader could improvise new locations and actions and build up the tension towards the sudden, Big Scary moment, which suddenly turned the tale into the race of the return journey, complete with a ‘reverse memory test’ of all the places, actions and sound effects.
BEAR HUNT was a kind of game, a playing-about with a fictional quest - ‘We’re going to catch a big one’ – where the listeners faced the sensation of imminent peril, even as the incantation reassured young campers that they would not be facing danger alone. No wonder BEAR HUNT was a popular a metaphor with summer camp leaders!
However, when WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT! became a book, that once-improvised journey was fixed down across the spreads. It gained the status of print, along with most adults & children’s preference for stories ‘read in the right way’. So what, apart from the strong format, gave that picture book its presence and power? With their new collaboration ‘OH DEAR, LOOK WHAT I GOT!’ half in mind, I opened my copy of the once-familiar picture book and examined what was going on ‘in the pictures’.
What had Helen Oxenbury’s illustrations brought to Rosen’s BEAR HUNT retelling?
WHERE was the story? First of all, Oxenbury’s loose, sketchy style of illustration and use of double-page spreads adds a sense of lightness and airiness to the setting, giving the reader an idyllic version of an English rural landscape. Clearly, bears would be extremely unlikely in such a familiar place: a first clue that this will be an imaginary tale. Yet, as the family set off on their quest, she shows roof-tops down in the valley behind them; they are, in the story, leaving home behind.
WHO was in the story? This telling also has the sense of a group. Oxenbury draws a realistic, ordinary family of four children, their father and a dog. (I also welcome the fact that she drew a human family, rather than a set of anthropomorphic characters but some aspects of publishing were much simpler then.) Now, while the father is clearly there to look after the children, Oxenbury does not show him as the one in command: the siblings often help him, each other and even the dog, who is not the bravest of creatures.
Meanwhile, the huge surprised bear, in his monotone brown fur in his monotone brown cave, seems lured, by the curiosity that Oxenbury shows in his eyes, out into the brightness of the real world. Alas, after padding after his visitors, the poor bear finds himself shut out – and plods back to his refuge. (A follow-up title did take on the bear’s story, but I am not sure how warmly it was loved. Do you?)
HOW was the imaginary part of the story managed? As each ‘problem’ presented itself -
‘Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!’ – Oxenbury used ordinary, everyday black-and-white but then, as if the moment is brightened by the imagination, she switches to beautiful full-colour spreads while they solve each problem, Even so, she maintains the sense of realism, of being in this world: for example, as the family cross the river, they hold their shoes in hands, the older girl bunches up her skirt, and the boy grasps the collar of the swimming dog, all while the particular sound effect -
‘Splash splosh!’ - presents itself three times in a simple ‘capitalised box’, as happens almost all the way through.
THE PACE of the story? When at last we get to the big brown cave, where the huge bear appears –
One shiny wet nose! Two big furry ears! Two big googly eyes! – he seems rather cross about unwelcome visitors ands. Oxenbury now has to cope with a big problem. So far all has been slow, steady adventure, using a complete spread per scene.
When you are using your voice to tell a story, speeding up is easy and quick. How, though to manage it visually, so the story won’t drag and, furthermore, will fit within the page count? Delightfully, Oxenbury uses six quickly-glanced, quickly-read sequential panels placed horizontally across one spread, the narrow images speeding us towards home – but then? Will all be safe? Is this the end?
No! Oxenbury’s next page switches to four brown-toned panels, echoing the colour of the cave and hinting at vertical bars. The family all look outwards from within the house. Look what trouble the outside and the brightness of the imagination got us into!
The bear is following, is approaching. Oh no! We forgot to shut the door! Back downstairs. And then, with the danger locked firmly outside, the family rush up to the bedroom. They dive under the safety of the vast, feminine pale-pink bedcover, eyes still wide with fear but safe, safe, safe. Although, with a lovely twist, despite all his adventures, Oxenbury's little baby lies there, only half-under that cover, smiling and playing with his own rather recognisable toy bear. What was all the fuss about? Finally, on the last earth-brown spread, she shows us the bear plodding alone, across the lonely, empty shore, to his cold cave. Poor bear! Be careful about what you wake, both beings and feelings! Oxenbury, that brilliant artist, without any of the modern showiness, glitter, sparkle or visual fuss, made that WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT! story into a treasure of a book.
Unfortunately, though I hate to say it, even with all those clever speeding spreads, Bear Hunt can sometimes be a little too long for reading out to a group of the youngest children. Storytime is not a one or two on the lap situation!
So when - HOORAY! - in late October, I spotted Rosen and Oxenbury's new collaboration in hardback in a bookshop - and at a reasonable £12.99 - I bought myself a copy. I’ve used it for a couple of ‘Under-Fives Storytime’ at my local library and will again.
What did I find? ‘OH DEAR, LOOK WHAT I GOT!’ is a much quieter, smaller storyline than Bear Hunt. The book itself is far simpler but, in its way, just as useful for story sessions. For a start, only one voice ‘speaks’, not a family group, which makes the plot simpler and the story thread easier for younger listeners. However, although Oxenbury‘s characters are realistically drawn, they all have a slight story-book quality to them, and she allows each person to stand out against the calming white space on the pages. The clarity of this book’s design and layout feels very pleasing for younger and older eyes.
The child – the main narrator/character - is not swiftly relatable or cute. Oxenbury has added a touch of the fairytale, a hint of the not-quite-now, to his androgynous appearance. He has a slightly timeless look to his face, wears an fitted red jacket, dark leggings, and a black peaked hat. Moreover, his slight frame, his manner and his curiosity suggest a child who is a thinker, a logician, a quiet solver of problems.
What story does Rosen bring to us? Told very simply, the child goes to the shops to get one particular item though, helpfully for the tale, no money or card-use is involved. Unfortunately, though each shop is clearly the correct destination – a greengrocer has a shelf of vegetables, a baker stands behind shelves of cakes, and so on - each shopkeeper completely misunderstands. Instead, the child is given a badly-concealed object, partly wrapped up in brown wrapping paper.
When the child gets home – shown as an implied space on an otherwise empty page - they discover their badly-wrapped parcel is a rhyming alternative for what they wanted. We, reading this book, are suddenly in a ‘silly rhymes’ word game. ‘I went to the shops to get me a carrot. Oh dear, they gave me a parrot!’ the narrator declares. “Do I want that? No I do not!” Did I catch a hint of Dr Seuss’s phraseology there? Checking Helen Oxenbury’s website after writing, the answer was yes!
On the story progresses, through about four more ‘beats’, until the wriggly pup, that final mistake, sets off an uproar. This, if you study the images closely, follows the traditional format of
‘So A did this, which made B do this, which made C do this, etc.’ I wonder if you recall that
‘old woman needing to get her pig over the stile’ folk tale? But fortunately, there is a loud knock at the door. The shopkeepers have arrived, all is righted - seen through the pictures not in the words -and a happy party ensues. The end.
OH DEAR, LOOK WHAT I GOT! needed a read or three to find the rhythm of the text, to consider the limited vocabulary, and watch for where the word-count offered extra opportunities for repeating phrases or joining in with animal noises, which always goes down well.
Besides, Oxenbury’s characters all have a charming slightly old-fashioned look about them, too, and an attractive, amusing manner which fits well with the ridiculous errors, leaving the re-jacketed narrator as the only one with any sense. I enjoyed, too, the way her endpapers visually extended the gentle plot, and noticed that the ‘brown paper’ that wrapped the parcels cleverly reappears on the hardback covers.
‘
Do I want that? No, I do not!’ the adults and children started to echo as I read out the pages, However, as far as
OH DEAR, LOOK WHAT I GOT! goes,
I decided I did want that!
In it goes, into my own secret book stock at home, even though my usual choices are titles from the library book boxes. Though Rosen and Oxenbury’s new title is far simpler than WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT it is, in its own way, very useful and enjoyable. Reading the book aloud to the (big and) little ones on the library carpet felt very much like fun.
Speaking of which, I hope all your winter festivities will be fun, too. Have a fine December!
Penny Dolan
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