How to use this Page

#44 The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood (1984)
40 points

Great to read aloud and fun to read again and again. Gotta love the expressions on the mouse’s face, the ways he “protects” the strawberry, and the surprise ending. Was there ever a bear? Is the narrator the bear? Are we bears? The kids get a kick out of it! – Gina Detate

I can read this book over and over again, and it still feels fresh and new with each re-reading. Little Mouse’s expressions are priceless, and we love helping him gobble up the strawberry at the end. Such a clever plot. – Audrey Johnson

There are three things I love about this book: the unique point of view (the reader basically becomes the narrator!), the fact that we never see the bear though we fear him all the time (at least I did at age 3), and the image of the strawberry wearing a disguise. I don’t think this is Don and Audrey Wood’s best known book, but it’s always been my absolute favorite. – Katie Ahearn

Because it works every time. It was the first picture book I bought for my personal collection as a young children’s librarian, and I still, almost twenty years later, always have that copy in my office just in case there is a storytime emergency and I need to read aloud. - Laura Reed

Four blurbs!  Now we’re cooking with gas!  Inevitably this poll revealed big favorites that I was personally unfamiliar with.  Of course I’ve heard people gush over this title.  But somehow I’ve never sat down and read it for myself.  Now that I had an excuse to do so, I found it a charming tale.

The plot from the authors’ website reads, “First published in 1984, a picture book in which the Little Mouse will do all he can to save his strawberry from the Big, Hungry Bear, even if it means sharing it with the reader. The Little Mouse and the Big Hungry Bear are known and loved by millions of children around the world. Little Mouse loves strawberries, but so does the bear…How will Little Mouse stop the bear from eating his freshly picked, red, ripe strawberry?”

Beyond that there’s actually not a lot out there on the book.  If you go to the website of Don and Audrey Wood you’ll find lots of activities and secrets behind their other books, but not this one.  Methinks they don’t fully appreciate how popular it has remained all these years.  Someone would do well to inform them.

• Be sure to check out the world’s cutest tie-in recipe.

Missed this one.  Apparently they performed this book at the Scholastic breakfast in 2009 when the ALA Conference was in Chicago.  Huh!

#64 King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood (1985)
30 points

My all time favorite, favorite, favorite picture book. I would pore over the illustrations of this book and look at all the details in each page. Stunning artwork and a fun story. - Sarah

Don and Audrey are two of my favorite author/illustrator combinations. This one never fails to induce giggles. – Heather Christensen

King Bidgood may have been the first Wood title I ever saw. I missed their books for the most part in my childhood, though in the case of this particular book I do remember seeing it in the possession of the younger siblings of one of my friends. It would be years before I came to know Audrey and Don’s work any better. What we have here is a Caldecott Honor winner and in 2005 there was even a 20th Anniversary edition, complete with a CD of six original songs.

Here’s the description of the plot from School Library Journal: “In this humorously original tale, various members of the Court, all clothed in elaborate Elizabethan dress, try to dislodge the King from his bubbly tub. Instead they are drawn into it with him, to ‘do battle’ with toy ships and warriors; to eat a lavish feast; to fish and to dance. It is the young page who finds a solution, finally, by pulling the plug. Much of the delight is in Don Wood’s meticulous oil paintings, which juxtapose the starched, overdressed, ’shocked’ demeanor of the Court with the King’s twinkling, sensual, even lascivious manner. Minute details in the paintings emphasize this contrast; the red-haired naked King frolics while the fully-clothed courtiers emerge dripping from the bath with literally all their starch taken out.”

Newbery Award winner Susan Patron reviewed this book for SLJ and called it, “A voluptuous book whose rich range of colors and tones reflect the passing hours of the day.”

Book cover via AmazonThe setting of a picture book is important because it determines much of the illustrations.

Picturebook Settings

When writing for kids, you walk a fine line between what is familiar v. exotic. Kids like the familiarity of neighborhoods, homes and schools. Yet, they also need to have their world expanded and literature is a great way to do that. Try to stretch the setting, yet keep something familiar.

• The Wild Thing, by Maurice Sendak, starts at home, sends the character out for a fantastic visit, then bring him back to the comfort of home again.
• Think of the classic picture book, King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, by Audrey Wood, which uses the familiar ritual of a nightly bath, but turns it into something exotic.
• Or, turn something exotic into something familiar, as in Thy Friend, Obadiah, by Brinton Turkle, which treats a Quaker family and a historical family as just a normal family.

Suggested Reading for Familiar v. Exotic

• Familiar:
  • School
    Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman
  • Home (Any suggestions for this one?)
  • Outdoors
    My Friend Rabbit, by Eric Rohmann
• Exotic:
  • Traveling across country:
    The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison
  • Other countries
    The Diary of A Wombat by Jackie French
  • Fantasy settings
    The Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
• Combination of Familiar and Exotic:
  • 19 Girls and Me by Darcy Pattison (school and imaginative play that takes the kids to exotic spots)
  • Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French (Australia)

NOTE: An exotic setting can’t save a “weak” story; but it might give it an extra edge of uniqueness that helps it work better.
Could Diary of a Wombat have been about a squirrel?

Any other suggested titles?

Book cover via AmazonThe setting of a picture book is important because it determines much of the illustrations.

Picturebook Settings

When writing for kids, you walk a fine line between what is familiar v. exotic. Kids like the familiarity of neighborhoods, homes and schools. Yet, they also need to have their world expanded and literature is a great way to do that. Try to stretch the setting, yet keep something familiar.

• The Wild Thing, by Maurice Sendak, starts at home, sends the character out for a fantastic visit, then bring him back to the comfort of home again.
• Think of the classic picture book, King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, by Audrey Wood, which uses the familiar ritual of a nightly bath, but turns it into something exotic.
• Or, turn something exotic into something familiar, as in Thy Friend, Obadiah, by Brinton Turkle, which treats a Quaker family and a historical family as just a normal family.

Suggested Reading for Familiar v. Exotic

• Familiar:
  • School
    Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman
  • Home (Any suggestions for this one?)
  • Outdoors
    My Friend Rabbit, by Eric Rohmann
• Exotic:
  • Traveling across country:
    The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison
  • Other countries
    The Diary of A Wombat by Jackie French
  • Fantasy settings
    The Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
• Combination of Familiar and Exotic:
  • 19 Girls and Me by Darcy Pattison (school and imaginative play that takes the kids to exotic spots)
  • Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French (Australia)

NOTE: An exotic setting can’t save a “weak” story; but it might give it an extra edge of uniqueness that helps it work better.
Could Diary of a Wombat have been about a squirrel?

Any other suggested titles?

One morning, about a million years ago, Ughmaw awakened with a bone in her nose and a frown on her grumpy face.

Audrey Wood's love of storytelling has been a vital part of her life since childhood. Her art student father earned extra money at the winter headquarters of the Ringling Brothers Circus by re-painting the big top and side show art work. She remembers when she was very small: her mother took her there to watch her father work, and regaled her with stories about the people in the colorful circus murals her father painted.