Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey

I have to dedicate a post to Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey because I've been reading it non-stop to Rosie for the last month. It was every morning and every night but it's calmed down now! She got obsessed with it. Thank goodness it's a brilliant picture book and can stand being re-read so much. The girl's got good taste!

It's kind of a retelling of the Gingerbread Man tale with a clever twist. The artwork's amazing and has some great details that you only spot after the fiftieth reading. I really love the biscuits on the duvet cover and bits like that.

It tells the story of a little boy who makes a biscuit bear with his mother and then isn't allowed to eat it. When all is quiet in the dead of night the biscuit bear gets up and because no-one else is awake he decides to make some more friends. Biscuit Bear's circus is born and they all have a lot of fun... until the dog decides to join in. Biscuit Bear decides to leave and seek safety in the local bakery display window where he will never be eaten. A very satisfying tale!

It reads really well and I love the text nearly as much as the artwork. The only quibble I have with the whole book is the fact that Biscuit Bear makes his biscuit friends out of 'butter, flour and milk'. But I guess he's young and has never made biscuits before!

I think this book works for a two year old who wants to be told slightly more complicated stories but needs something quite simple which will quickly grab their imagination.

We've enjoyed quite a few of Mini Grey's books. She's a fabulous picture book author and illustrator. We love Egg Drop (although Rosie did drop a couple of fresh eggs on the floor the other day and I think I'm blaming the book for that!). And 'The Dish and the Spoon' is classic and worth getting. And the Traction Man series is cool. She's just brill!

We have even made our own biscuit bear to add a little extra curricular fun to the tale! Although Rosie seemed to think it would be fine to eat Biscuit Bear!!


Step 1. Stirring the mix (I used Nigella's Christmas biscuit recipe - mainly because I wanted to try it out. I think there must be much simpler gingerbread men recipes out there!).

Step 2. Making the biscuit bears - a slightly fiddly job which we found a bit hard to agree on!

Step 3. Biscuit Bear is ready to go into the oven - yummy! Can you see which one is the real biscuit bear?!

Step 4. Ok, so Rosie seems to have forgotten about how the real Biscuit Bear actually wanted to stay alive and not be eaten. Oh well (big sigh!).

We bought our biscuit bear cutter from Blackheath Cooks in Blackheath Standard, South-East London. I'm not sure if they do mail order but they're very nice people so give them a call!