We’re having so much fun these days reading “Bears don’t eat egg sandwiches” by Julie Fulton and illustrated by Rachel Suzanne. It’s witty and funny. Little gosling’s excited laughter and giggles are so contagious! The language is simple enough for a two year old to understand and repeat it over and over again. A great story for acting out, with a gradual build-up and a surprisingly enjoyable ending.  Children are so innocent, spontaneous and so surprisingly fearless and intelligent and this story is a testament to that!

Jack loves egg sandwiches. One day, for lunch, he receives the unexpected visit of a …. hungry bear. He candidly (or not?!) keeps offering the bear from his huge pile of egg sandwiches, despite the bear grumpily announcing “bears don’t eat egg sandwiches”. Whilst getting more and more annoyed with Jack’s offering, the bear leisurely has him set himself up to be eaten. Jack gets out of being eaten at the very last moment by sheer wit. His attempts to dissuade the bear by enumerating what he finds disgusting tastes culminate in the dreaded “I’ll taste of egg sandwiches”. Interestingly enough, Jack behaves as nothing had happened and offers the bear a different kind of sandwich. 

I first heard it on Julie’s Library podcast. I liked it so much, that I immediately bought it for little gosling. I enjoy the podcast better, but he enjoys it best read by mommy. He loves imitating the bear’s knock on the door. He quickly stands up and finds the closest thing in which he can knock with his small hands, whilst looking at mommy with a big smile. He gets more excited as the bear’s irritation grows and yells the different verbs used in the book. By now, he knows it by heart. The climax of excitement comes when Jack tries to dissuade the bear from swallowing him; he particularly loves it when Jack mentions the smell of dirty socks :))). He has so much fun with this story and it’s a true joy to read it together.