Three Bears in a Boat by David Soman

Begin with the first words of this book:

Once there were three bears ...

Is this the familiar fairy tale? No of course not - these bears are called Dash, Charlie and Theo and they live beside the sea and love to play in the sand. On returning from their time at the beach the three bears take advantage of the fact that their mother is away from home. There is a glorious jar of honey on the mantle. Look at the title page - the three have been longing to grab this and now there is an opportunity. Struggling to reach the 'forbidden' jar they accidentally knock their mother's precious blue shell off the shelf. It is smashed in to small fragments.

"Afraid of their mother, who, after all was a bear, the three fled from their house down to the beach where they huddled behind their boat."

Look at the words here. Fled - they are terrified of the consequences. Huddled - you can feel these three youngsters trembling.

What will they do? Go home, face their mother and admit they were naughty or follow Dash's suggestion and try to find a replacement shell.  Here is another beautifully placed word:

"And so just like that, the sly bears slide their boat into the sea and set sail."

Sly- they know they have done the wrong thing but they think they can cover their tracks and mother will never know!

The three meet an old salty who advises them to head to a small island shaped like a hat. "If you look in the right place, I reckon you'll find it."  I love the idea that they sail "further than they had ever gone before."  This truly is an adventure. Maybe it will be even more scary than facing up to their mother!

Image source: https://bookriot.com/2015/01/09/one-look-favorite-picture-book-art-2014/

There is no shell on the island even though they explore everywhere including a scary cave. If you were using this book with an older group of children it would be interesting to draw a feelings graph because at this point in the story emotions spill over and the three start to apportion blame. They don't notice that a wild storm is approaching. Now they need to forgive and forget and work out how to survive.

Look at this line - it made me smile:

"They didn't care whose fault it was anymore, they were all in the same boat."

When you pick up this book take time to look at the end papers. They are perfect.

I've been collecting images of books I want to read and this was one in my file. I found it in a library yesterday but as usual I can't remember why or where it was listed.

Three Bears in a Boat was published in 2014. Watch this video where David Soman talks about his book - it will make you laugh.

There is so much more to this book which the wonderful Betsy Bird discovers and explains in her review for the School Library Journal. I would not have recognised references to Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick and I have no idea about the third boat which Betsy thinks keen children's literature fans will recognise from the checkerboard, lantern and toy sailing boat. I am not sure about Betsy's idea about the name of the boat - Ursula K - I think this refers to ursula meaning little bear. Although the placement of K does support her idea that it is a reference Ursula K LeGuin.

I love her idea of comparing Three Bears in a Boat with Where the Wild things are. Both are about journeys and adventures and explorations without parents but it is the words at the end of each that deserve special attention.

Where the Wild Things are: "and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him and it was still hot."
Three bears in a boat: "Then she bought them inside for a warm supper. But they didn't get any dessert."

I think you could have a wonderful discussion with older children about these endings. Talking about concepts like consequences, punishments, honesty, responsibility, truth and love.

I would pair this book with with Humphrey's Bear and Once upon a small Rhinoceros. You could also compare Three Bears in a Boat with the stories by Ursula Dubosarsky in Honey and Bear.

As I read this book I kept remembering a small book from my former school library which would be great to pair with Three Bears in a Boat. I looked in the online catalogue but could not locate it. I am sad now to discover this book has been removed from their collection along with many other special and important titles. I do hope I can find this one in another library. This is a truly special book that should be shared with young children.

There are page turns where you simply sit for a moment and linger, looking at the new vista before you until you are ready to read the words on the page. Waking Brain Cells


Humorous and intelligent—and with watercolor seascapes so luminous that readers will want to jump in—this is a book to be treasured for years to come. Kirkus Star Review