Big Brown Bear’s Cave

How much stuff does one bear need?  When Big Brown Bear finds an empty cave, he knows immediately it is just the right size for a bear like him. But that night, no matter which way he bear-stretches, he cannot get comfortable, for it just doesn’t feel like home. Pondering this problem on a gentle stroll, he comes across a village, the houses each with an attached cave. Dark and dusty man- caves, just full of STUFF.  Big Brown Bear decides he too needs stuff. So he starts gathering, favourites being stuff with wheels, stuff with handles and stuff that comes in boxes. He tells himself he won’t stop collecting till he has filled every corner of his cave. What happens when his three bear friends come to visit, hoping to come in? No room for visitors, only stuff! When they call again, wanting Big Brown Bear to join them on a fishing trip, poor BBB is truly stuck, trapped under piles and piles of stuff. Oh what trouble the friends have to free him. POP! At last he is freed. What to do, other than return all that stuff to the humans? We see the empty man caves, all four bears heading towards them, loaded down with clocks, chairs, hoses, lamps, rocking horses, guitars, vacuum cleaners… and boxes galore. Finally, the cave is empty of all that stuff. At last there’s room for BBB to stretch and scratch, and yes, room for his three friends too. For the very first time, the cave feels like home! A fun story, BBB discovering that what he needs most of all is friends, not stuff. The illustrations keep close contact with the story line, and the stylised trees in the endpapers are a delight, more than a dozen trees with differing bark on the trunks and carefully shaped leaves, so that identification is possible; oaks, maples, yews and conifers. Whilst the first endpaper depicts spring, with birds perched in the treetops, the final one is distinctly autumnal, leaves flying in the wind and littering the ground, amidst which we track large bear footprints. Altogether a very satisfying book, with more to discover on subsequent reads.