21 month old LOVES it - pictures and anticipation

The Story
The inside cover of this book reads "Retold by Michael Rosen". In other words, this story has an oral tradition that may differ from written versions. If you're familiar with the story, you should expect a few changes in the wording. Michael Rosen's rendering, although different than the song/chant I learned as a child, is well done.

In spite of the well-written prose, I usually change a few of the written words so that I can sing the story to my 21-month-old son, Isaac. If you would like to hear a brief audio clip of me singing a bit of the book, go to my profile page and follow the "Favorite Websites" link called "Going On a Bear Hunt Song".

Isaac likes the song's repetition and gets excited with the anticipation of seeing the bear. Research has shown that singing and chanting helps children focus their attention and makes them feel like part of the activity. I can really see that in Isaac when I sing this book to him.

The Illustrations
Both Isaac and I enjoy Helen Oxenbury's illustrations. Every page that starts with the sing-song words "We're going on a bear hunt...." is a charcoal drawing. Then, the next page is a watercolor image of the family "going through" the current obstacle. This pattern adds visual interest.

Once the family "Tiptoe[s]! Tiptoe[s]! Tiptoe[s]!" into the bear cave the rest of the pages are in color. However, there is still variety in how the images are laid out. After the family sees the bear they begin to hurry back through each obstacle they've conquered. This time, however, instead of picturing each obstacle on its own page all of them are covered on two facing pages: each is depicted in a 2" high by 9" wide panel, and the "Back through the [insert obstacle here]!" text is underneath each panel.

When you turn to the next page you are greeted with more panels - this time 4 spanning 2 pages, so that each panel is approximately 6" tall by 4" wide. This use of panels helps convey the speed and urgency of the story at this point. The last two pages are a large, restful color panorama.

The text is large enough to read comfortably but doesn't interfere with the images at all because the book is about 10" tall and 11" wide when closed, making each 2-page illustration/text area approximately 10" tall by 22" wide.

The Book's Construction
As I stated above, this book is large: 10"x 11"x 0.75". It is also a hardcover with a slippery dust jacket. This combination makes it difficult for Isaac to pick up and bring to me when he wants to read it. The worst problem was that the book would slide out of the dust jacket while he was carrying it!

Since the actual hard cover of the book does not have a picture on it, I want to keep the dust jacket on the book and in decent shape. The dust jacket itself is heavy-duty laminated paper and difficult to tear.

In order to keep the dust jacket on, I created pockets for each book cover to slide in to. I did this by putting some paper on the top and bottom of the flaps and taping around the top and bottom of the cover. This works great - unless Isaac manages to get one cover out and the book fans open.

This happened yesterday. He was about 5 feet from me when the book fanned open, so he used one of the pages to drag the book to me. I was sure the page would tear out from the weight of the rest of the book but it did not! It did tear a little, but I taped that up right away and noticed that each page is strong, good quality paper. The binding is also strong and nearly indestructible. This book may actually be around when he is an adult!