Bear Hunt, by Anthony Browne

This is another great picture book by Browne. The story, as said in its title is about a bear hunt. The only actual characters are Bear and two hunters. The hunters try to get the bear using increasingly violent methods, but the bear counters the attacks by drawing his way out of trouble. Yep, that's right! Drawing. Bear takes out his pencil and draws a rhino to scare the hunter, or draws a string to trip the hunter...

I just kept thinking about one of my all time favorite books from childhood: Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crocket Johnson. Much like Harold and the Purple Crayon, the story builds upon the idea of a magical writing tool. In this case it is a pencil. It's a good thing Bear has that pencil!

The story NEEDS the illustrations to be understood. Without the pictures, the text would have little meaning. AND... THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE WACKY!! There's a lot of really strange detail added into the brightly colored forest scenery of the book. For instance: fingers pop out from behind a fern, green lips form the leaves of a flower, some plants wear top hats, and other plants wear shoes, a bird is shaped like a teapot, etc.

There are so many opportunities to get lost in the illustrations, which is likely ONE MAJOR reason why I seem to enjoy Browne's work so much!