We're Going on a Bear Hunt

A family of five children (plus their dog), are going out to hunt a bear. They travel through long wavy grass, a deep cold river, thick oozy mud, a big dark forest and a swirling whirling snowstorm before coming face to face with a bear in a narrow gloomy cave. This meeting causes panic and the children start running back home, across all the obstacles, chased by the bear. Finally, the children return to their home and lock the bear out of their house. The bear retreats, leaving the children safe. The children hide under a duvet and say: "We're not going on a bear hunt again!". At the end of the book, the bear is pictured trudging disconsolately on a beach at night, the same beach that is shown on a sunny day as the frontispiece. Most of the illustrations were painted in watercolour.^[1] However, the six pictures of the family facing each new hazard are black and white charcoal drawings.

At each obstacle is an onomatopoeic description. Before each obstacle the children chant the refrain:

We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared.

followed by (while crossing the obstacles):

We can't go over it.
We can't go under it.
Oh no!
We've got to go through it!

At the end of the bear hunt, they (now safe from the bear at home), conclude with this line:

We're not going on a bear hunt again.

• The two of the eldest of the children (called Stanley "Stan" and Katie in the television adaptation) are sometimes mistaken by readers as being the parents but are in fact the oldest siblings. They are based on Oxenbury's own children. Likewise, the dog is modelled on an actual family pet.^[2]
• In the television adaptation, though not in the book, the mother, father, and grandmother of the family make an appearance. Also, the four older children (unnamed in the book) are identified as Stanley, Katie, Rosie, and Max. The baby sister (youngest of which) remains nameless. The dog (also anonymous in the book) is called Rufus.
  • Stanley is the eldest child, Katie is the second oldest, Rosie is the middle child, Max is the second youngest and the baby sister (unnamed) is the youngest.
• Each of the obstacles, apart from the river, is based on a real life location in England and Wales that Oxenbury knew.^[1]
• Unlike the book, where the bear is ambiguously mean and hostile, in the TV adaptation it is unambiguously friendly and lonely, and merely chases the children only because of Rosie being friendly to it and wanting more attention.

The story was adapted from a children's chant; Rosen, who heard the song, incorporated it in his poetry shows and subsequently wrote the book based upon it.^[2] Since publication, the book has never been out of print and each year has been in the 5,000 best selling books.^[3] The publisher has stated that the book has attained worldwide sales of more than 9 million copies.^[4]

The book won the overall Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 1989 and also won the 0–5 years category.^[5] In 1989 it was an 'Honor Book' in the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards.^[6] The book also won the 'School Library Journal Best Book of the Year' and the 'Mainichi Newspapers Japanese Picture Book Award, Outstanding Picture Book from Abroad' award.^[7] It was highly commended for the 1989 Kate Greenaway Medal.^[8]

The publisher, Walker Books, celebrated the work's 25th anniversary in 2014 by breaking a Guinness World Record for the "Largest Reading Lesson", with a book-reading by author Rosen that was attended by 1,500 children, with an additional 30,000 online.^[3]