So many of the books that you'll see (and have already seen) in our #Booky100Keepers list have been written about on this blog many times and we make absolutely no apology for once again featuring Helen Cooper's masterpiece "The Bear Under the Stairs".

Another library loan initially, we were quite 'down' on this book when we first reviewed it, as it absolutely terrified the pants off poor C when it was read to her at bedtime (possibly not helped one little bit by some ad-libbed extra dialogue from me, talking in a gruff grizzly voice when it came to the bear himself.

It's the story of William, a young lad who is petrified of grizzly bears, and is convinced that one lives in the cupboard under the stairs.

William imagines the bear doing all sorts of nefarious things. Hiding under the dinner table imagining what boys taste like when eaten for dinner, and of course running around looking very bloodthirsty!

I swear, even after years of reading this book we're convinced we still find new hidden bear shapes in every page thanks to Helen Cooper's masterful illustrative skills

William tries to appease the bear by feeding it with anything other than himself. He throws a pear into the cupboard under the stairs, in the hope that the bear will nosh that instead.

William's excellent drawing of the bear. Yikes!

After a while, and after several more secret feedings, William's Mum finally notices a dreadful pong wafting through the house...time to confront that grizzly where he sleeps!

Ew what a pong!

We've seen so many critiques of this book, largely from adults who want to find a deep philosophical meaning within. Many others who want to take the core message and leave it at that, but for us it's always been a book that "plays" with the reader, and invites them to ask themselves "What if the bear IS actually there, what if it's not in William's imagination (clearly in the illustrations it's having a merry old time in the house until it gets confronted and chased away, even though no one ever actually really sees it in the context of the story - except us, the readers!)

I don't think either of us can recall many books that go to work on your imagination, your skill at visualisation and your interpretation of so many different emotional triggers (fear, anxiety, bravery, a comforting bit of parental wisdom) so expertly. I remember we borrowed so many of Helen's other books ("The Baby Who Wouldn't Go To bed is also utterly glorious - though weirdly C never took to "Pumpkin Soup" or any of its follow-ups) - But ah this one, this is one of the finest picture books ever written and it's no faint praise that I could very much imagine C keeping this forever and perhaps even sharing (and scaring) with her own kids one day maybe.

Original reviews and articles: 

The original review (how wrong could we get it but hey we were only starting out back then!)

2012 (now we're getting it!)

Books that stick - a ReadItTorial from 2018

Our Chapter Book of the Week this week is the debut middle grade / chapter book from a lady who has written some of our favourite picture books in the past...

On the one hand it's a book about a little boy's over-active imagination and fear of the dark cupboard under the stairs, and the bear he believes live there.

On the other hand it's a book that expertly and very visually describes exactly what it feels like to be a child, at that age where pretty much anything still feels possible and plausible, and even the most innocent old fur rug tucked under the stairs can look like something altogether more menacing.

The first time we read this book together it gave Charlotte nightmares and that was pretty much reflected in our first review.

Weirdly though, she came back to it and demanded we borrowed it from the library (we've since added it to our collection, just because it's such a fantastic book). Almost like she LIKED being scared by it but once she'd got over the initial way the book worked on her, she began to really love Bear.

Back when she was very tiny, I hadn't the foggiest idea what being a dad was all about. I fell into the same traps I'm sure many new dads (and quite a few new mums) do of not quite thinking things through before launching into them. I developed a very gruff gravelly voice for Bear even though he doesn't actually have any 'spoken' lines in the book. I'd add these little comic asides to describe his actions, fitting them alongside William's own story in the tale. Stupidly I think these probably made the whole book feel more menacing than it actually was but it's interesting to see other folk's opinions on this one, not feeling that it's a dark book at all.

But it does work on a child subconsciously, and I think that's perhaps why later on children lose the ability to pass something off as merely being in someone's imagination, and pick up more on emotions and feelings of characters who are quite obviously in distress.

Going back to "A Series of Unfortunate Events" I wondered how the TV show would deal with a moment that underlines exactly what a complete b*****d Count Olaf actually is. Early on in the book when Klaus, Sunny and Violet have dutifully cooked dinner for The Count and his awful acting troupe / band of henchmen, Klaus says something particularly smart back at Count Olaf, and receives a ringing smack around the face for doing so.

The earlier movie adaptation of the books featured the slap, the TV show didn't shy away from it either - and this is a bit that really does hit home (if you'll pardon the tasteless pun) that Count Olaf is more than a pantomime baddie who snarls at the audience, to be booed at. This is an evil character who has almost no redeeming qualities whatsoever (though the TV show is beginning to lay the groundwork for the later books where we discover that The Count has more reasons to hate the Baudelaires other than the frustration of not getting his filthy hands on their massive fortune - no more spoilers, you need to read the books as they are brilliant!)

The slap is something that would rule out me letting Charlotte watch this show, and it's something we gently skipped over in the books (I'm pretty sure many parents "abridge" books to read around bits they know are unsuitable for their younglings, right?) but it is a pivotal part of building Olaf's character up to be exactly what it is, a dark villain that should not be trusted an inch.

As I get older, and thanks to a good dose of sensibility from my wife, I find I'm getting more touchy and sensitive about darker books myself - well, for Charlotte's consumption at least. Now and again we vet chapter books that we know would probably disturb her during before-bed reading but it's so very tough to do this when you've very little indication of a book's content if it's A) brand new and B) all you've got to go on is a very short summary.

Of course, 'dark books' are the darlings of the press who love to point out that as children become ever-more desensitised to horrible people and horrific events, authors and illustrators of dark stuff have to up their game until they're treading firmly on the toes of subjects and characters that would make many adults wince. Are we rapidly approaching a point where dark books are a quaint thing of the past because kids have seen it all before by the time they reach the tender age of taking their own first faltering reading steps on their own?

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Rating: 4 out of 5

Hmmmmm! Not sure what to make of this book. On the one hand it has a life lesson about not being scared of the dark contained within its pages. On the other hand it's a pretty menacing (and sometimes scary) book, and certainly not one you'd want to read to a restless toddler before bedtime. 


As you can see from the cover art, you're never really sure whether "The Bear under the Stairs" is a benign soul or a menacingly dark figure. The little lad in the story is scared of the bear, and the space under the stairs and it would be extremely easy for your little ones to develop the same fear if you've got an understairs cupboard that's dark and dingy. Maybe it's a worry-wort parent thing but Helen Cooper's book doesn't have a nice light "oh everything's alright then" ending, rather it seems to want to perpetuate the idea that this bear could be anywhere, under any stairs, at any time. 


Number one rule of kids books: Think about the psychological effect of your book and its characters on young and imaginative minds. 


Charlotte's best bit: None


Daddy's favourite bit: None


Rating: 0 out of 5