Now, Hampstead illustrator Helen Oxenbury and Muswell Hill writer Michael Rosen have reunited to collaborate on a new story book.
Oh Dear Look What I Got will be on the shelves in September, courtesy of Bear Hunt publishers Walker Books. Like Bear Hunt, it is based on a poem that Rosen regularly performs to audiences.
“I went to the shop to get me a carrot. Oh dear, they gave me …. a parrot! Oh dear, look what I got! Do I want that? No I do NOT!”
Each trip to the shop brings a mishap and an animal surprise, with a joyful final twist. Oxenbury told The Observer she had finished the illustrations and the new book is “quite weird.”
She said: “It feels a bit like Dr Seuss, which I love.”
Bear Hunt was adapted from an American folk song and won The Nestle Smarties Prize when it came out in 1989. It has gone on to sell over nine million copies and has been turned into stage shows and a film.
The duo famously worked on the book separately, with Rosen surprised when he saw Oxenbury’s watercolours of a family adventure.
On Walker Books Bear Hunt website, Rosen says: “I’m always amazed and delighted by ‘bear hunt’. It’s a chant, a poem, a fun and games romp with actions to make up.
“When I was asked to turn it into a story to be illustrated, I wondered if it was possible but I added some words of my own and waited. Then came the day I saw Helen’s pictures – and I was utterly blown away. She had turned those words into a family epic.”
Oxenbury, whose books include Farmer Duck and There’s Going to be a Baby, a collaboration with her late husband John Burningham, did not meet Rosen until after Bear Hunt came out.
She said: “What was wonderful was there was nothing described in a way that restricted me. I modelled the children and the dog on my own. The bear’s posture I modelled on a friend who had depression, with his dropped shoulders – I felt the bear was probably lonely and wanted company rather than to eat the children.”
A solo show about Helen Oxenbury‘s career and illustrations runs at Burgh House, Hampstead from March 5 and is set to feature original artwork for We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
