ETC: The Big Hungry Strawberry

The book I'm writing about today isn't actually titled The Big Hungry Strawberry. That would be silly, who ever heard of a big hungry strawberry. The title is actually The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. One day, one of the kids brought me the book and I was feeling silly. I said "YAY! The Big Hungry Strawberry, I love that book" and they laughed and laughed and how silly I was. So from then on it became known as The Big Hungry Strawberry, and it's still funny. This book follows Little Mouse and his adventures picking a big red ripe strawberry. He's immediately informed that big hungry bears love red ripe strawberries and he spends the rest of the book trying to protect it. Eventually he agrees to split it with the reader as a way of making it inaccessible to the bear. The book is fun, you're talking directly to the character and they are reacting to what you as a reader are saying. We never meet the bear but he tromps through the forest on his big hungry feet, BOOM BOOM BOOM and with some feeling as a reader, you can really get your kids into it. Like most of the other board books I love, you and your kids become more than just passive listeners to the narrative, you become part of the story. That's the kind of thing that makes kids love books and eventually love reading. Be prepared though, when books are good like this one, you'll end up reading them thousands of times. It's worth it.