The Bear Under The Stairs

Product Information

It tells the story of William and how he copes with and finally confronts his fear of bears and dark spaces. As the story is told in rhyme and uses alliteration, it is a great way for children to review certain phonemes, particularly different ways to make the /a/ sound.

The bear under the stairs is centred around a boy named William whom having one day seen a furry figure inside the cellar believes that there is a bear living under his stairs. This is what the story builds up for the audience to believe but then we are contradicted once again and the existence of the bear is confirmed.His mum thinks he is imagining things and gets cross when the cupboard starts to smell - William has been putting food in there for the bear.

He is utterly convinced that the bear will gobble him up if he doesn't feed it, so every day he carefully opens the door, throws in some food and slams it shut quickly - wham, bang, thump!Eventually the remains of the food let’s of a stench that the rest of the household can smell, when Williams mother decides to investigate they find that the cellar is rather empty. Her books have been translated into 26 languages and won many awards including the Library Association Kate Greenaway Medal – twice. The illustrations are done in soft watercolors and do well to represent Williams’s imaginary fears using a dark, shadowy, smudgy technique at times.