This is a timeless classic! If you love the book then do yourself a favor and watch the author's narrated video of the story. You'll love it even more!

Great fun to read. Action packed and interesting story fast enough to keep little ones interested. I loved the fact that each of the five children had their own personalities and they had a big adventure together. The rhyme of the text was fun to read and let the reader know that it took courage to keep going when obstacles stood in their way. My twin grandchildren loved to recite "Oh No! We can't go over it, we can't go under it. We have to go through it!" Interestingly, after we read the book I discovered a short video of it that had an expanded plot which explained why they were on the adventure and a bittersweet ending with the bear. Read it and see it.

Does mmcbeth29 have any contact with young children ?! They LOVE this story ! The repetition is what young children enjoy and the fact that they outrun the bear and are safe, makes for a satisfying ending ! Humbug mmcbeth29 !!!

This book is just scary enough to be delightful to preschoolers and kindergarteners. The repetitive storyline is great for building reading-readiness skills, and the pictures and onomatopoeia make it pure sensory enjoyment. Highly recommended.

My first impression when I started reading this book was how boring it was. It is nothing but a repetition of events over and over for over 30 pages. Then I started disliking it because the dad is dragging his small children through a river, a dark forest, a snow storm and finally an actual bear cave. Then the bear chases them back the way they came and even tries to get into their house. I get the premise of a dad taking his kids on an outing or even a pretend bear hunt, but this "adventure" was dangerous and frightening. The publisher advertizes this book for ages 2-5. I would never read a scary book like this to any child under the age of 6 at least. What were they thinking?
Would I recommend this book? NO. Boring for older children and frightening for little ones.

Fun to read. Worked well at "Reading aloud" program

After 10 years my children still now this book sentence by sentence. This is a book full of fun and cuddles. Great for the 2-3 year kids.