The Little Mouse / the Red / Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear (Early Success) Paperback – July 3, 2003

This was one of my favorite books to read to my daughter when she was young. She's 22 now but still remembers it fondly. I bought this one for the 4 yr old son of my friend. It's a cute, silly book and the illustrations are adorable.

Grandson read this in school and wanted for my house. He’s in kindergarten and reads like a champ!!! He is reading all his books. Such a help to buy books for your little ones. Keeps his interest. I ordered a few more in the suggestions for him!

The book is beautifully illustrated, but the story did not sit well with me. It's the narrator talking to a Mouse. The narrator starts off asking the Mouse a question and the mouse's actions imply he is going to pick his ripe strawberry. Then the narrator proceeds to give him fearful information on the next pages (you can see in the pictures of the mouse how these fearful words affect the mouse and his actions) about a bear that could smell the strawberry a mile away and eat his strawberry no matter how he tries to hide or guard it. The narrator tells the mouse the only thing to do, to make sure the bear does not get the strawberry, is to cut it in half and share it with the narrator. While I am all for sharing, it is the way the narrator manipulated this mouse, using fear to get him to share the strawberry with him, that bothers me the most. We see this all too often in life and I do not want my child to receive that message. I would rather have the mouse share from the goodness of his heart, instead of out of fearful persuasion from the narrator about what could happen to the strawberry. Share out of the LOVE within you, not out of FEAR.

The book came in an envelope with no reinforcements. It is somewhat crumpled. It is also much smaller than the big paperback I had long ago, and you can’t tell size from the ad. I paid 29.95 for this book, which is way overpriced, and now it lists for 22.97. I am disappointed.

Simple story with great expressive illustrations

Was very disappointed when I got this book. I had purchased it originally for part of a baby birth gift. The book is made of very flimsy paper and the inside of the cover is printed for use in a school library. This was not stated in the details of the description of the book on Amazon's website. There is school info printed on the inside of the back cover, also. In ending, the content of this book is intact but this particular book is not one that I can gift.

My kids loved this book and now my grandkids do too. Such a fun book to read out loud. Love the artistic pictures.

One of my favorite books as a child. This book was in perfect condition and is exactly what I was looking for!