The Bear Under The Stairs

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How do you know the table in front of you is real? If it is real because you can see it, is it still real when you close your eyes? What makes it real? William is frightened of a big and hungry bear he believes he has seen behind the door under the stairs. He’s so scared of the bear getting hungry and eating boys for tea that he starts feeding it until his mother notices a bad smell coming from under the stairs. After William finds out what he thought was a bear was in fact an old rug, his fear seems to go away. Does knowledge always remove fear? Is it possible to “know” that there isn’t a bear under the stairs or a monster under your bed and still be frightened of it? How is that possible? The Bear Under the Stairs raises philosophical issues regarding the nature of fear, on the one hand, and about the nature of reality and its relationship with imagination, on the other. But it also provides the perfect starting point for fun discussions about whether we can know that we ourselves are “real” and about the reliability of our senses. Fear The Bear Under the Stairs is lovely book appealing directly to a child’s real-life experiences of fear, bravery and imagination.

Fear, bravery, bears, phonics, family, speaking to a trusted adult, overcoming fears, the power of imagination, fact and fiction The philosophical questions here explore the difference between reality and imagination or reality and dream. How, for example, do we know we’re not dreaming all of the time? Lccn 92023840 Ocr ABBYY FineReader 8.0 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.16 Openlibrary OL1720592M Openlibrary_edition Have you ever been unsure as to whether something really happened or whether you dreamed it? How did you find out which was the case?In turn, this raises general questions about reality, how we know what’s real, whether we ourselves are “real,” or whether even we ourselves could be a figment of someone else’s imagination. Reliability of the senses 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. A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature. This gorgeous, lyrical text tells the story of a boy called William who is convinced that a bear is living under the stairs. 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 repetitive language ‘wham, bang, thump’ is also a fun way to encourage children to join in with the reading. It also has strong PSHE links, particularly around overcoming fears and speaking to a trusted adult. Helen Cooper is a significant and prolific author who won the Kate Greenaway award twice for two consecutive books. Links and themes:

What’s the difference between reality and imagination? How can we tell when something is real rather than imaginary? Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-alpha-20201231-10-g1236 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Arabic Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.4522 Ocr_module_version 0.0.13 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-0000707 Openlibrary_edition

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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! In the story, William is frightened. Why is he frightened? What is he frightened of, exactly? Does he really have a reason to be frightened?

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… What is real and what is imaginary in The Bear Under the Stairs? Is the bear real? How do you know? Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-06-03 04:03:06 Boxid IA40128117 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier 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. When William comes clean about feeding the bear under the stairs, his mother suggests they both face up to it and fight it. When they finally open the closet door, they find an old furry rug instead of a bear, and lots of stinky food everywhere.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. 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.

Questions for Philosophical Discussion » Summary How do we tell the difference between our imagination and reality? Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. Do you think the bear “really” draws William? Or do you think the drawing of William by the bear is part of a dream William is having? Why?Find out what happens when a nastly smell pervades the house and Mum and William decide to investigate . . . Text Rationale: Do you think William dealt with his fear appropriately? What would you have done in William’s situation, if you thought there might be a bear under the stairs?