Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Maybe a Bear Ate It!

Rate this book
StoryPlay (TM) Books -- the best new way to engage with your little one during story time -- continues with four new stories!

StoryPlay Books is the smart way to read and play together! StoryPlay Books offer fun ways to engage with little ones during story time and playtime with prompts and activities that everyone will love! Each quality story will delight readers while building early literacy skills for ages 3-5 by helping them problem-solving abilities, reading comprehension, social development, pre-reading skills, memory strength and more! Each book includes story-related games and crafts to extend the reading experience. Teachers agree that StoryPlay Books are perfect for parents looking to stimulate and engage their kids at home while having fun together! Each book also shines a spotlight on important topics for this age. Maybe a Bear Ate It! -- a clever story about a missing book -- focuses on problem solving.Are you ready to start reading the StoryPlay way? Ready. Set. Smart!

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

9 people are currently reading
366 people want to read

About the author

Robie H. Harris

63 books94 followers
Robie H. Harris has written many award-winning books for children of all ages, including the definitive Family Library about sexuality: IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL, IT'S SO AMAZING!, and IT'S NOT THE STORK! She lives in Massachusetts.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
312 (32%)
4 stars
330 (34%)
3 stars
246 (25%)
2 stars
61 (6%)
1 star
11 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
Profile Image for (NS) Lisa.
55 reviews
October 17, 2009
It's Gone! It's nowhere! I can't find it anywhere! Where-is-my book? I need my book! A catlike creature finds his book missing from his comfy bed. His active imagination takes over: "Maybe a bear ate it!" "A stegosaurus stomped on it", "A rhino ran away with it", "A bat flew up high in the sky with it", "A shark swallowed it", and even, "An elephant fell asleep on it". No matter what our young friend does, he cannot locate the book—until he finds it underneath his bed. Children will love the story line, and the complimenting illustrations . This story is guaranteed to bring hours of pleasure to bedtime reading sessions.

Young readers from preschool through kindergarten will be delighted to engage in this charming story.

Profile Image for Lizzie.
635 reviews40 followers
August 29, 2012
I really enjoyed reading this to toddlers at Storytime. The beginning starts out wordless so I just made a lot of sounds of pretend reading, thinking and getting sleepy. The kids animated all those sounds along with me which was a riot.
Profile Image for Oliver.
750 reviews16 followers
July 15, 2024
A cat-like creature loses his book (it fell off his bed) and his imagination runs wild with the possibilities of what could've happened to it. It's simple and straight-forward, but my daughter absolutely loves it and has even had me read it to her three times in a row (despite having a short stack of books we checked out from the library from the same visit). I would've liked there to have been someone —a friend or parent— acting as a voice of reason. Then his possibilities could've escalated in silliness/outlandishness and the friend or parent's increasing frustration with the boy's ridiculousness would've made it that much funnier (although, admittedly, my daughter already laughs quite a bit).

I'd probably give it four stars, but since it's a kids' book and mine apparently can't get enough of it, I'm awarding it a bonus star.
Profile Image for Barbara.
15.3k reviews314 followers
October 31, 2017
A young animal is curled up in bed, enjoying a book, but his bed becomes crowded with stuffed animals, and he grows sleepy. With all the stuff on the bed and the tangled bed coverings, he loses his book. (Yes, I know--that really does call for some hysteria! I've lost a lot of things in my time but never a book, thank goodness.) After pitching a fit about its loss, he begins pondering some possibilities for its whereabouts. They're pretty ridiculous, and eventually, the book is located, right where he left it. This book is a good title for helping youngsters develop early literacy skills, including comprehension, memory, and using their imagination.
Profile Image for Margaret Boling.
2,731 reviews44 followers
September 16, 2018
9/14/2018 ~ Oh no! A (library) book is missing and must be found before the main character can go to sleep! I had so much fun reading this with my Kindergarten and first graders! They felt so smart, and yelled repeatedly at the character that the book was...well, you'll need to find your own readers to spot the book. It was especially interesting to see different groups discover that all the disasters the character imagined were related to the stuffed animals they (gender unclear?) had taken too bed.

I tied this in to our library orientation - if a book is missing, it's important to look everywhere!

(Adult readers will LOVE the dryer - that's where all our missing socks are!)
48 reviews1 follower
March 1, 2017
Maybe A Bear Ate It! is all about the main character losing his favorite book. He searches and searches and searches for it but he just can't seem to find. With it being gone, he assumes that it is gone forever, using the idea that maybe a bear ate it.

I really enjoyed the book. Growing up, I fell asleep reading quite often, so I definitely related to how panicked he probably felt. It started off as a wordless book, which was interesting to me because I have never read wordless books unless I was in class.
Profile Image for Jennifer.
5,139 reviews64 followers
May 29, 2019
A little creature (who looks an awful lot like a monster to me) falls asleep one night reading his beloved book. When he wakes up in the morning the book is nowhere to be found and he's devastated. He imagines the worst (e.g. a bear ate it, a stegosaurus stomped on it, etc.)! The first few pages are wordless so just make some "hmm" and "ahh" reading noises if you're reading this one aloud to a group. Since the reader can see the book throughout the entire thing, this makes a fun read aloud as the kid try and tell the monster where to find his book. Great illustrations and lots of fun!
Profile Image for Autumn.
36 reviews1 follower
December 19, 2020
Two of the funniest stories came from my love of this book. 1. I lost my copy of this book and had the same thoughts as to what happened to it like the main character (thanks to the book itself), and found it like how the MC did. 2. When I lost the book, my mom was so glad that she had it memorized by then because reading this to little me was the only way to get me to sleep. Definitely my favorite book from my childhood.
Profile Image for Terresa Wellborn.
2,805 reviews45 followers
February 3, 2026
A short, sweet book that has small bubbles asking questions on each page, jump starting conversations with littles. Also check out the Animal Riddles, Imagination Station, Mystery Solved, and Picture Time notes at the back of the book. Would work well in a group setting -- school visit to the library, classroom, or even a lapsit.

Themes: bears, books, humor
Ages: preK-1st grade
Pub year: 2008
40 reviews
April 13, 2023
This book follows a character who loses their book and thinks up a bunch of crazy ideas! For example, they think a shark swallowed their book, or an elephant fell asleep on it, but the book ended up being under their bed the whole time! In the end, they are happy they found their book and fall fast asleep after reading it.
Profile Image for Lydia.
1,139 reviews49 followers
July 12, 2018
A great example of our first reactions when we lose things, especially important things like our favorite books! Although I thought the kid was pretty tame, he didn't wreck anything whilst frantically searching. :)

No content issues.

Profile Image for Colorado Buck.
1,228 reviews
July 29, 2019
was not that impressed. the kid looses his book under his blanket and rips the house apart looking for it, then finds it later on. losing things / finding things? animals in here that may have taken it too.
Profile Image for Anthony.
7,398 reviews33 followers
September 30, 2019
When a young lad loses his favorite bedtime story book, he imagines that various animals has done something to it, starting with a bear who may have ate it. He searches high and low for his book with startling results.
Profile Image for Courtney.
4,298 reviews
November 7, 2019
My children absolutely adore this book. Reading literature is so important to the development of a child's mind, and I cannot think of thing I would rather do then sit down to read to them in the evenings. Imagination and growth are so vital in those so young.
Profile Image for Megan.
496 reviews
August 28, 2020
A charming story about a kid who loses his book and goes looking for it. Light on words, good pictures, lots of opportunities to ask for observations and predictions. Models a love of reading. Likely a good storytime option.
Profile Image for Lauri Meyers.
1,243 reviews30 followers
October 10, 2022
A little creature loses his favorite bedtime book and begins to imagine what may have happened to it. A stegosaurus stomped on it? A bear ate it? An elephant fell asleep on it? Then he finds it under his bed, right where he dropped it. Fun to read aloud.
40 reviews
January 20, 2026
This book was vey short and did not include a lot of words. There were a lot of pages that only had pictures. I think that this book would be entertaining for younger kids as the illustrations are fun.
10.8k reviews32 followers
January 23, 2017
A very cute toddler and up book about an animal who has lost his favorite bedtime book and dreams of all the animals that could have done something with it before he sets out to find it himself.
585 reviews3 followers
May 27, 2018
Where is my favorite book? I cannot find it anywhere? Maybe a bear ate it?
6,334 reviews84 followers
June 23, 2018
Cute book about a book lover who loses a book in bed and thinks about what could of happened to it (see title) then goes to look for it.
Profile Image for Marissa Ellis.
80 reviews
May 7, 2019
This is a fun inventive story that would be great for students to model a writing project after.

Six+1: Ideas

Guided Reading: G
Lexile: AD230
Profile Image for Nathan.
2,266 reviews
November 2, 2019
I remember as a kid coming up with, what now I call, worst case scenarios. That's this story. My 6-year-old could relate as I read it to him. He loses things quite often.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for SB.
468 reviews
May 22, 2020
Cute book that reminds kids to LOOK for things. :)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews