Big Brown Bear thinks that filling his new cave with ‘stuff’ will help him to make him feel at home. But will having lots of material possessions really help? We love this new picture book from Yuval Zommer which shows that having lots of possessions doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness.
The Story: While walking through the forest Bear finds the perfect cave and moves in. He fills his cave with ‘stuff’ to make it into a perfect home but then discovers that there’s no room for visitors. When he gets stuck in his cave and his friends pull him out Bear realises that it isn’t ‘stuff’ that makes a house a home!
Big Brown Bear’s Cave is a wonderful story to show children that people and relationships are much more important than possessions, a message that we have constantly striven to convey to our daughter. With the help of his friends Bear comes to realise that surrounding himself with ‘stuff’ is not the solution to his problem!
We’re huge bear fans here and we love Big Brown Bear’s story, there’s so much humour in the text and the illustrations. Bear attempts to copy the concept of human ‘caves’ and helps himself to ‘stuff’ from people’s garages. He takes boxes, anything with wheels and finds an amazing array of kitchen items including a food mixer, a colander, a coffee pot and a measuring jug. The humour escalates as the cave gets fuller much to the bemusement of his three friends. However, in a wonderfully heartwarming and beautifully illustrated final spread Bear finds happiness in his new home 🙂
From the moment we met the four bears we fell in love with the illustrations in the story. The natural colours of the forest and Bear’s new cave contrast with the bolder colours of the ‘stuff’ that he collects. I love the pictures of Bear’s friends trying to get him out of his cave when he’s stuck and my daughter laughs at many of the items that Bear collects – “Why does a bear need a dress making dummy, Mummy?”.
Big Brown Bear’s Cave can be used to initiate discussion about how important friends and family are and what children think that they need to make their homes happy places. It would be a lovely story to use in a reception class for a Homes and Houses topic and the pictures showing Bear’s new ‘stuff’ can provide lots of scope for discussion and introduce new vocabulary. There is so much in Bear’s new cave to talk about!
Age Range: 3 +
Author / Illustrator: Yuval Zommer
Thank you to Templar Publishing for sending us a copy of Big Brown Bear’s Cave. We’d love to see Bear and his friends in another story!
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