Don't Feed the Bear Book Review

I love a good picture book, sometimes the pictures within a book can be more entertaining than the words that accompany them and I definitely found that with Kathleen Doherty's latest picture book, Don't Feed the Bear.

What you get with this book is what I'd describe as the funniest food fight in history, it's time to watch Bear vs Ranger.

Bear had a perfectly great life ... until the Park Ranger put up a sign that read Don't Feed The Bear. Well Bear isn't about to let the Park Ranger get away with claiming all the picnickers' goodies for herself.

Crafty Bear puts up a sign of his own, and the battle for yummy grub is on! Each worthy (and hungry) competitor tries to persuade park-goers to their side. At stake: delicious chow, like juicy burgers and chewy cookies. Who will win this war of words?


When you see the front cover of this book, you see a grumpy bear and a slightly smug looking Park Ranger and the first thing I asked my youngest daughter is why do you think we shouldn't feed the bear?

Her response, "Because the bear might eat you."

Actually, when you open the book and start turning the pages, the reader is presented with an entirely different sort of story to what they might expect when first predicting things from the illustrations on the front.

This Bear doesn't want to eat humans, in fact what he wants is the things we might like to eat too, mac n cheese, burgers even a carrot cake. But the Park Ranger has other ideas, not from concern for what the Bear might be consuming but because she wants the food all to herself.

Bear loved when campers left him grub. CHOMPITY, CHOMP, SLURP

And then a war of words begins, the question is will either side manage to out smart the other?

I adore Chip Wass's illustrations. They are exciting and bold and along with the funny sign changing competition that follows, what we get is something that is guaranteed to have you chuckling and I'd be surprised if your child doesn't ask you to read it time and time again. 

Hey You! Go ahead, feed the Bear wormy apples and moldy muffins.

Of course no good picture book is complete without a lesson to be learned. Kathleen cleverly shows children a thing or two about sharing and also that friendships can come from the most unlikely of places.

Don't Feed the Bear is a children's book that makes good use of playing with words, something which makes reading that little bit more appealing. And be warned, this book may have the tendency to make you feel hungry when reading it!