I had never heard of this book until I attended a settling in session at my daughter's nursery and witnessed first hand how it seemed to enrapture a group of rowdy toddlers, who seemed enthralled with every word. Impressed by the children's response and the lovely language in the book, I snapped up a copy on my next shopping trip.

The story follows a family who decide to go on a bear hunt, and is quite traditional in terms of its style, colour and illustrations. I was not convinced my two-year-old daughter would be an instant fan, as she favours brightly coloured books and touchy feely ones, but she loved it from the beginning, despite its simplicity.

Starting out with the statement; "We're going on a bear hunt; we're going to catch a big one" the book then follows the family as they encounter a series of everyday obstacles on their big adventure through the countryside.

The books flows really nicely, introduces some lovely words and easily lends itself to being read outloud in a dramatic fashion! As with many popular junior books there is a lot of repetition but it does not detract from the story. In fact, it enhances it and reinforces the phrases used throughout.

There is a problem solving element as the group discover unruly grass first and quickly realise "We can't go over it, we can't go under it...uh oh we've got to go through it!"

Later on they family have to decide how to tackle a river, mud, a forest, a snowstorm, and a cave, before finally uncovering the bear in question. At this point common sense kicks in and they all run back home as fast as they can with the angry bear hot on their heels!

On the way back they of course need to retrace their footsteps, and so we are treated to the whole adventure again, but in reverse. This is great as it reinforces the words and phrases used like "stumble, trip"and "swishy swashy." In turn my daughter seems to enjoy the dramatics of this, and is already getting into the excitement and starting to say the words and know what's coming next.

This really is a lovely book. It has a simple yet successful formula and is probably well-placed to appeal to two to five year olds. It was originally published in 1989 by Walker books and is written by Micheal Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury.