OH DEAR, LOOK WHAT I GOT!

To the guaranteed delight of many, the creators of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (1989) reunite a full 36 years later for an all-new read-aloud experience.

A light-skinned, behatted child goes to a shop to purchase a variety of different things and each time comes home instead with an animal. “I went to the shop to get me a carrot / Oh dear, they gave me… // a parrot!” After each ill-acquired critter, the youngster definitively states, “Oh dear, look what I got. / Do I want that? / No, I do NOT.” Worse (or better?), every accidentally procured creature accompanies the child back to the shop for maximum hilarity. Things come to a head when each animal generally bothers the next, culminating in a very put-out “Oh dear! What shall I do?” Happily, by story’s end, the shopkeepers come to switch out the incorrect purchases for the ones the child truly wanted. Coming to a satisfying conclusion, Rosen’s jaunty rhyming tale contains a perfectly calibrated sense of repetition. Meanwhile, Oxenbury clearly delights in depicting an affectionate array of chaotic wildlife and joyous, racially diverse shopkeepers; each gently illustrated watercolor image feels masterfully crafted.

A guaranteed hit for the storytime set, from a team whose talents haven’t aged a day.