The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

**Lisa Bueno** (0:00)
Okay, our friends. So today, we are reading a classic to you. It is The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear. Because it is strawberry season, right? All summer long, we eat strawberries. This story was written by Don and Audrey Wood, and it's illustrated by Don Wood. And it should maybe get us thinking about what we've got going on this summer. So buckle up, you guys. Today's story is read by Mommy, and Philip. When we open the book, we see a little mouse. He's exiting his house. He has a ladder, and the book says, Hello, little mouse, what are you doing? And he's showing us, oh, I see. Are you going to pick that red, ripe strawberry? And we can see he's got his ladder leaned right up against that strawberry plant and he's smiling at us as if to say, I'm going to get a snack. But little mouse, haven't you heard about the big hungry bear?
This gives the mouse pause.
Oh, how that bear loves red, ripe strawberries. Oh, that scared him a little bit. His tail went straight.
The big hungry bear can smell a red, ripe strawberry a mile away. That has given him the shakes, especially one that has just been picked. And as he shook, he dropped the strawberry when he fell off of the ladder from shaking. Boom, boom, boom! The bear will chrump through the forest on his big hungry feet and sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff. Find the strawberry no matter where it is hidden. And so we can see in the picture, the mouse thinks, I will just simply run away with my strawberry, and then I will hide it under the ground. I will bury it. And so he's trying to do that. But is that going to do the trick?
Or who is guarding it? And we can see, well, then maybe he'll just take it inside and wrap it up in a lock and a chain. That ought to do the trick, right? Or how it is disguised. Also not going to be good enough because in this picture, we see he's put some funny glasses with a fake nose and some mustache and funny eyebrows on the strawberry. But it still looks like a strawberry, doesn't it? Quick, there's only one way in the whole wide world to save a red ripe strawberry from the big hungry bear.
What do you think it's going to be? Eat it? The whole thing? But he's a very small mouse. How could he possibly eat that whole strawberry? It's almost, it's bigger than he is.
It says, cut it in two.
Share half with me. Ah, so in the pictures, the mouse has taken a very sharp looking knife. Hopefully, it's not too sharp and he's being very careful with it. And he has evenly sliced the strawberry right smack down the middle. And then he has taken one half of it, lifting it up and handing it to us. And we'll both eat it all up. Yum. There he is. He's got a fork. He's taking big chunks of it and eating it. Now, that's one red ripe strawberry the big hungry bear will never get. Right? And he's left a big whole mess on the table, hasn't he? And it is also... In the end. How come the bear wasn't in his book? How come the bear wasn't in this book? Really good question. I guess that we're meant to think of him, but you know what I noticed?
I think that the person who wrote this book maybe didn't actually think that there really was a bear, but just really wanted half of that red ripe strawberry. They're not like the big hungry ones. Well, he was trying to scare them. The author says the bear will tromp through the forest on his big hungry feet, but that's talking about something that might happen in the future, and there's no guarantee that it would happen. I think the moral of the story is this.
Don't be so sure that things that might happen actually will happen. Right? And I'm certain that that little mouse couldn't have eaten the whole strawberry by himself and did need some help getting it down his tummy.
And I'm glad we were able to help by eating half of it. But I also don't think that there was anything for sure going to happen to him that would be bad. We don't know for sure whether or not there would be a big bear, do we? Yeah. So maybe don't panic. Things might not be so bad after all, right? Yeah. And that, our dear friends, is the end. Anything else you want to say?