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. Spelling Seeds have been designed to complement Writing Roots by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts, linked (where relevant) to other areas of the curriculum and a suggestion of how to extend the investigation into home learning. I acknowledge the fact that it may relate to some children's fears of dark isolated rooms and big furniture looking like scary creatures, or even that these things can be our imagination. Cooper was able to capture the ideas that children often have about whats in the closet, under the bed or in this case under the stairs. Unfortunately it teaches entirely the wrong moral: that there are no monsters lurking in darkness, waiting for us.

As a child I personally believed that the bear in the story was a figment of Williams’s imagination. She has also written and illustrated children’s MG fiction and the latest – The Taming of the Cat – published in October 2023. 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.When I read this with my 3-year-old nephew, we talk about options the little boy has to deal with the 'bear. Although the book is full of beautiful (sometimes scary) illustrations and visual descriptions, I thought it was a very difficult story for young children to make sense of. The Bear Under the Stairs is lovely book appealing directly to a child’s real-life experiences of fear, bravery and imagination. I thought the ending had an unnecessary twist and would leave children to continue being afraid of the dark, and the scary creatures that they believe exist in the dark. This is a very relatable tale about a child’s imagination and fears, told through subtle rhyming text and detailed illustrations.

She was born in 1963 and grew up in the far North of England in a very rural area where milk came from the farm in a can, bears lived under the stairs, and it rained a great deal. I think it would be a great class read maybe as part of a PSHCE section or if it came up as a worry for children.

Find out what happens when a nasty smell pervades the house and Mum and William decide to investigate . The first came 'The Hippo at the end of the Hall' which was both written and illustrated in black and white by Helen and longlisted for the Carnegie medal in writing. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Helen Cooper is a British children's author and illustrator whose work includes classic titles such as 'The Bear Under the Stairs', the 'Pumpkin Soup' trilogy of books, 'The Baby Who Wouldn't Go to Bed', 'Tatty-Ratty', 'Saving the Butterfly' (illustrated by Gill Smith) and 'The Taming of the Cat' which is published in October 2023. Therefore I would recommend this book for children aged 3+ as well as adults who are feeling rather nostalgic! We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Fearing the bear will want to eat him if he gets hungry, William brings the bear food every day, tossing it in quickly with his eyes shut tight. Her books have been translated into 30 languages and won many awards including the Library Association Kate Greenaway Medal – twice.This is a great book to help any young child who harbours fears of thinking there are strange things going on in the house. The Bear Under the Stairs is an entertaining, suspenseful, and amusing story that toddlers will certainly enjoy and ask for again. 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. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Eventually the remains of the food let’s of a stench that the rest of the household can smell, when Williams mother decides to investigate they find that the cellar is rather empty.