By Michael Rosen
A family sets off to find a bear, wading through long grass, a river, and mud, chanting the same brave rhyme the whole way.
A father and four children (and the dog) decide to go and find a bear. They're not scared. Off they go, and the world keeps putting things in their path: swishy long grass, a splashy cold river, thick oozy mud, a dark forest, a swirling snowstorm. Each time they can't go over it or under it, so they have to go through it, and each time your child gets to make the noises with you. Then they reach the cave, and they find the bear, and the whole family has to run all the way back home, back through everything, faster than they came.
The steady repeating rhyme is exactly what a three- or four-year-old wants, because they can predict every beat and shout it before you get there, which makes them feel like they're telling the story too. The illustrations alternate soft gray sketches with big splashy color, so there's always something new to look at. And the sudden bear and the dash home give it a real jolt of excitement that resolves the instant they're safe under the covers at home.