It’s that time of year again… Strawberry time!! I had a whole punnet to myself on my journey home. Never mind, they were 2 for 5Euro so I still had one to share with Ed. I won’t tell him if you won’t 😉 Speaking of strawberries, here is a brilliant, brilliant story: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear 
The illustrations are just superb. The facial expression on the mouse conveys such emotion, don’t they? He is starting to look a little worried. LOL! 
For those of you who don’t know, I come from the home of Irish strawberries, Wexford. We are renowned for our strawberries and are very, very proud of that. I am so blessed to be able to purchase amazing strawberries at the exit of my school. It’s so hard to drive past them and not purchase a punnet or two. 
As a strawberry lover a book about a big, red, ripe strawberry is to hard to resist ! I can completely make a “text-to-self connection” with this book. How far would you go to hide the red ripe strawberry from a big hungry bear?! Pretty far I think…
Hmmm. Looks like I can make another “text-to -self connection”. I would completely give in and eat it. No bear is going to put me off eating a red, ripe strawberry. 
Click here to purchase the book. Strawberries must be purchased separately and from a roadside seller! Here are some fun facts to accompany your reading of The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear . 
I never knew that strawberries were a member of the rose family? I also adore roses! Incredible! I am fighting a battle with aphids at the moment who seem to love my roses as much as I do!!!
Calling all teachers:
If you don’t have it then you really should! I just love it! I attended a professional development workshop last year on storytelling and the whole workshop was based on this book. As you can see Book Depository have The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear in a large format book also, which is what I purchased. Click here to purchase Do you have a favourite summer read? Please leave a comment and share with the rest of us if you do! Have fun, Miss Mernagh 🙂
missmernagh.com 
I love reading your blogs, they inspire me so much in my everyday teaching. When you choose a new book do you read it during your English lesson and then integrate it into another subject area. Just with the overloaded curriculum we have, was just wondering how you fit it all in 🙂
Hi Shelly,
I start my planning for the year by choosing a story per week. All other planning comes from this. When I choose stories I try to use ones that are double duty where possible e.g can be used for science ( who sank the boat), history ( you, me and the big blue sea), maths (square cat). If you send me an email to info@missmernagh.com I can send you a screen shot of how I plan.
Miss Mernagh 🙂