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Cooper was able to capture the ideas that children often have about whats in the closet, under the bed or in this case under the stairs.
The Bear Under the Stairs is lovely book appealing directly to a child’s real-life experiences of fear, bravery and imagination.
We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. William is afraid of the cupboard under the stairs he is convinced there is a big bear living there.
As the story is told in rhyme and uses alliteration, it is a great way for children to review certain phonemes, particularly different ways to make the /a/ sound. Helen Cooper is a British children's author and illustrator whose work includes classic titles such as 'The Bear Under the Stairs', the 'Pumpkin Soup' trilogy of books, 'The Baby Who Wouldn't Go to Bed', 'Tatty-Ratty', 'Saving the Butterfly' (illustrated by Gill Smith) and 'The Taming of the Cat' which is published in October 2023. Most recently she has written and illustrated The Hippo at the end of the Hall; a children’s novel published by David Fickling Books. I like how it progresses from his initial feelings of fear and how he attempts to cope with it in his own way, to then sharing his fears with someone who helps to overcome it. Eventually a stench begins to waft out of the place under the stairs and William’s “bear” is discovered.Overall I think that this would be a good book to read aloud to young students and could get a few "ohh's" and "aww's" during story time.
I love Helen Cooper: her stories are always thought-provoking and with gorgeously detailed illustrations. Because of the importance and detail in the pictures this book could only be used when the child/ren were able to really see in detail at the pictures – so individually or in small groups. This could be used to encourage children that any fears or problems they have can be overcome when shared with others. Unfortunately it teaches entirely the wrong moral: that there are no monsters lurking in darkness, waiting for us.This is a very relatable tale about a child’s imagination and fears, told through subtle rhyming text and detailed illustrations. The illustrations are done in soft watercolors and do well to represent Williams’s imaginary fears using a dark, shadowy, smudgy technique at times. Although the book is full of beautiful (sometimes scary) illustrations and visual descriptions, I thought it was a very difficult story for young children to make sense of. This book would be suitable for children slightly older in Key Stage 1 (aged 5-7 years) as they are more likely to have that understanding in place picking up that the story is about the boy’s imagination.
e. the name of the various food and fruits that William feeds the bear) is easy to teach with the use of this text.The Bear Under the Stairs by Helen Cooper is a fabulous book for younger children about overcoming their fears. I think it would be a great class read maybe as part of a PSHCE section or if it came up as a worry for children. This is an interesting story for children mainly due to many interpretations that children will have regarding the story. es erzählt auf liebevolle weise, wie die phantasie von kindern alles mögliche heraufbeschwören kann(in diesem fall einen riesengrossen bären unter der treppe)und was dabei herauskommt. For KS1 there are lots of great examples of alliteration “bacon, bananas, bread”; “hazelnuts, haddock and honey” – children could add to the list or choose different letters and list alliterative food items that could be fed to the bear!