Big Bad Bruce by Bill Peet - Read Aloud - Bedtime Story

Big Bad Bruce
by Bill Peet
Bruce is a big mean bear who loves nothing more than wreaking havoc on the forest tossing boulders down hills smashing trees to smithereens and making the small woodland creatures go running and flapping for their lives. This makes him laugh and laugh! But then he tosses a boulder just a little too close to a witch out picking blueberries. She stomps up the hill to yell at him but he just laughs and saunters off. So she goes home to her cottage to make a pie for him, a magic spell pie with a magic potion inside. She sneaks back to the hill and sets it out for Bruce who smells it and comes and gobbles up the whole thing. She warns him but he ignores her and goes off to take a nap. During his nap he shrinks to the size of a chipmunk! He wakes to a terrible nightmare where every animal he used to torment is now big enough to chase and hurt him. So he runs and runs and finally ends up almost drowning in a small creek. Then nighttime brings owls and other scary beasts into his life. That’s when the witch finds him again and takes him home. But instead of making him disappear or hurting him, she keeps him as a wonderful little bear pet and he soon forgets being a big bear and enjoys his life at her house being her pet sleeping with the cat under the warm stove and tossing pebbles in the garden to scare the bugs and crickets like he used to do to the squirrels and rabbits and quail in the forest.

This is a fun little story that I hope makes your kids smile. Bill Peet was an artist for Walt Disney during the golden age of 2d animation. His books are richly written and beautifully illustrated in a distinctively Bill Peet style. His books are a great source for children who want to learn to draw.

This is a fun little Halloween story about animals and magic and all the unexpected things that could happen in the forest.