The best thing about this book, and the thing that gives it real depth, is what Anthony Browne called “the mysterious gap between the pictures and the words” – the words on their own tell of a little boy who mistook an old rug for a bear. But the pictures tell a different story! Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. 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. For a whole class it would be really nice as a “read out loud’ story but you would need a big book or visualiser to show the illustration. Children will also understand the power of imagination as it features in this story – is there really a bear under the stairs? In this it recalls Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. The Bear Under the Stairs is lovely book appealing directly to a child’s real-life experiences of fear, bravery and imagination.

It tells the story of William and how he copes with and finally confronts his fear of bears and dark spaces. The themes are universal: fear, imagination, coping strategies, relationship with trusted adult, safety, bravery. Which one of has not experienced the fear of monsters under the bed? Children and adults alike will relate to the story in an immediate way.

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It’s a chronological narrative using lots of alliteration, rhythm and rhyme – it’s really a poetry book as well as a story. There are also parts where the words themselves fade to ellipsis and the only the pictures tell the story. This heighten the feeling of fear of the unknown as experienced by William, as well as giving the reader time and space to focus on the detailed illustrations.

A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature. I think this is such lovely book about a little boy’s imagination. I love the illustrations; they are soft and subtle but also quite dark and eerie. I found the story quite touching as it really plays on the little boy’s innocence and fear. This story is something a lot of young children will feel familiar with – they have big imaginations about the unknown which can be quite enchanting, just like this book.This book is a short story about a boy who believes there is a big brown grizzly bear living under the stairs in his house. He is scared of the bear and is made to face his fear when his mother decides to clean under the stairs…