The Bear Under the Stairs

Fears, real and imagined, are a central and powerful theme in the life and minds of preschoolers. This book covers this theme for them with grace and beauty. I have read this book to many preschool aged children in my class, and without exception, every child has enjoyed it. That is a tough thing to accomplish. I believe the topic content paired with the BEAUTIFUL AND DELIGHTFUL WORDPLAY are the keys to this books success with its audience. This book artfully uses rhyme(...bear, there, in it's lair, under the stairs...), alliteration (...bananas, bacon, and bread...) and onomatopoeia (...wham, bang, thump!), to tell this story and entertain.

There is a horror lurking under little William's basement stairs - a hungry grizzly bear with a taste for little boys and an unnatural interest in their toys. Worst of all, William must deal with this horror on his own, as he lacks the hard evidence needed to alert his parents. Since this is no 'Home Alone', appeasement is William's only way to avoid becoming its next lunch. Ultimately these efforts backfire and draw a new character into the struggle just in time for the final showdown. Author Helen Cooper possesses a rare insight into children's minds and the childhood world. She knows their twilight places and the monsters that haunt them. And as her other successful works (such as 'The Boy Who Wouldn't Go to Bed') demonstrate, she is particularly adept at depicting those places in rich, colourful pastels, and from the perspective of small children (we see much of William's world at doorknob height and some adults mainly from the neck down). She is also great when it comes to drawing little boys and bears and their families. The piece de resistance comes in the page illustrating William's ultimate nightmare fantasy, a Boschian garden of unearthly delights starring a hot-tubbing, cross-dressing, pancake-flipping, walkman-dancing, TV-watching, electric-train borrowing, bannister-sliding bear in full rampage. Like the Ahlbergs' 'Peepo', Cooper's illustrations contain some of the most richly humourous explorations of the issue of subjective perception that I have seen in a children's book. Not only is there the obvious question of what does William really see down there, we also get to share the bear's perspective on William and his world (not flattering). Were there an academy award for best character in this book, the bear would win hands down. This is not to take anything away from William, but there is something powerful in that bear's face that defies quick categorization. This is no teddy bear. He's got an edge, a face that could indeed take a bite out of a little boy. To make matters worse, we often see that bear in an annoyed, even hostile state, as William's frantic attempts at appeasement bomb out big time. Yet in the final showdown there is something indefinable about that bear that grabs our sympathies by the throat. Perhaps in banishing this bear, this archetype of primal childhood fears, the hero is also banishing a fundamental and irretrievable part of childhood itself. If your reading audience consists of those who insist on starting at the copyright notice and earlier, be forewarned, this book will vindicate all their prejudices, as it features key illustrations both on the title page and after the text has trimphantly concluded. These (and particularly the look on his face!) suggest that reports that the bear has been permanently vanquished may be greatly exaggerated. This book deserves to be recognized as a classic for 4- to 8-year-olds.

Our "Bears" unit will be complete with sharing this story with my Head Start children in their classroom. Will fit in very nicely with our favorite stuffed animal and then all children can make one to take home

Getting and keeping the attention of eighteen 4 and 5 year old children is no mean task, The Bear under the Stairs, had them riveted, All of them. And at the end of the story the best accolade ever, expressed in three wounderful words, " Again teacher again." Barbara A Lawless. (Nursery Teacher, The Infant School. Bahrain .)