Bears in the night

A simple a narrative and story as you could think, the words tell the story without the need for the pictures, or do they?

Whooooo

In bed

Out of bed

Out of bed, To the window, At the window

Out the window

Out the window, Down the tree

Out the window, Down the tree , Over the wall

Over the wall, Under the bridge, Under the bridge, Around the lake

Under the bridge, Around the lake, Between the rocks

Through the woods

Out the window, Down the tree, Over the wall, Under the bridge, Around the lakes, Between the Rocks, Through the woods

Up spook hill!

WHOOOO!

Down spook hill, Through the woods, Between the rocks, Around the lake, Under the bridge, Over the wall, Up the tree...

In the window!

Back in bed

Whoooo

In this picture book the words themselves with a strong rhyme and repetition create a sense of adventure, in the latter pages a sense of urgency is evident as all the lines are repeated in reverse, together as they go through the window and back to bed. From the words the only reason we know it’s a bear is because the book is called bears in the night, which also suggests there is more than one bear on this adventure. Bears in the night could mean anything as just a title, not necessarily cheeky curious bears leaving the house.

The words are useful but pictures tell the story here, the series of prepositional phrases follow the seven little bears "out of bed, out the window, through the woods, up Spook Hill". What the words don’t tell you is that there are 7 bears "In bed" and the word "WHOOOOO" is coming through the window, so the bears in pyjamas get "out of bed" and go "To the window". The bears climb "out the window" and "down the tree". The bears go "over the wall ", "under the bridge" "around the lake "between the rocks" "through the woods" Then "up spook hill" "Whooo". Their curiosity takes them to the source of the “Whooo”, an owl, scared by the owl they then follows their route backwards at speed back to the safety of their beds. All this whilst mother bear who we can see through a window, sits sewing downstairs oblivious to the adventure.

The images that are the basis of the story, the words merely adding a narrative, are coloured in a blue water colour wash, giving a sense of night to the images, the lantern the lead bear carries gives off a yellow light which helps to illuminate the way up spooky hill. The expressions on the bear’s faces have wide eyes and large mouths which make it easy to identify their thinking, as they sneak out of the house and creep up spooky hill; they are also positioned in such a way as to look as if they are sneaking with hunched figures and arched feet.

The words are simple and lyrical in style so can be remembered easily and the constant repetitions aid remembrance of them, because of the lyrical style the words flow as the pictures do and are a song or chant to follow the actions of our inquisitive little bears. The amount of words per page increases as the rhyme increases in pace and all of the words and shortened phrases are repeated in the final verses as they rush back home.

I haven’t seen this book in years and reading it instantly brought back memories of reading it with my mum, it’s such a simple book and is generally aimed at early years readers, this is why there are so few words, just 24 words used in phrases across 32 pages, the story is mostly told in the pictures but without the repetition of the lines as each little bear starts their journey, we only see this in the pictures as the image leads us back from the lead bear to the window where the last bear is leaving the window.

The best thing about this picture book is the simplicity of it, so few words yet such a great story, an adventure even, all told through fantastic images with animated expressions, the pictures tell the story and the words add the tension and the humour via the simple narrative added, I loved it as a kid and loved reading it again now.

Again very good - I'm not really an emoticon kind of person but having used one the first time I now feel obliged in case anyone feels left out!