We're Going on a Bear Hunt: Anniversary Edition (Classic Board Books Series) Book

"We're going on a bear hunt.
We're going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We're not scared."

Bear Hunt, beautifully illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, is the British children's book author Rosen's most popular book, this Vietnamese edition one of the (more than, now?) fifteen dual language ones.

A family of five (with a dog) embarks on a bear hunt, (without weapons). At first you can see this is just a family outing, it's all in fun, it's about spending a day in nature pretending they are going on a bear hunt, and Dad is all smiles, but as we proceed from the sea though the meadow, across a river and into the dark woods, Dad is more serious, that's a kind of subtle key.

And then there's a blinding snowstorm they just have to get through and it appears somewhat like an allegory of a life together, from joys through challenges, if not quite (yet) sorrows (See Michael Rosen's Sad Book for that), and then they actually proceed into a dark cave to find a sleeping bear?! What can they do? Obviously they must run home, back (to review together, children, what we have read) through every landscape we have been through to get there, and safe in bed--lock the door!--and commit to never doing anything so foolish again! But I would go with them, again and again! Lovely.