# Is "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen (illus. Helen Oxenbury) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen (illus. Helen Oxenbury) (Walker Books, London, 1989) is identified by: UK Walker Books 1989 first printing: oblong (landscape) quarto in terracotta textured cloth-grain boards lettered in black on the spine, pictorial double-page endpapers that differ front and rear, in Helen Oxenbury's pictorial dust wrapper; ISBN 0-7445-1135-6. UK Walker Books, London, 1989 is the true first: Walker originated and commissioned the book, both creators are British, and it took the 1989 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (overall and 0-5 division).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- UK Walker Books 1989 first printing: oblong (landscape) quarto in terracotta textured cloth-grain boards lettered in black on the spine, pictorial double-page endpapers that differ front and rear, in Helen Oxenbury's pictorial dust wrapper
- ISBN 0-7445-1135-6
- Dealers describe it as first edition, first printing without citing a printing statement or number line, so identification rests on the 1989 Walker imprint, that ISBN, and the absence of later-impression wording on the copyright page
- Price present at the flap is a jacket point only; a high proportion of surviving copies are price-clipped
- One dealer listing describes the Walker copy as "pictorial boards" rather than terracotta cloth — that copy lacked its jacket, and the better descriptions agree on terracotta cloth-grain boards
- The first American printing (Margaret K. McElderry Books, ISBN 0-689-50476-4, orange/terracotta boards lettered in black) is reported with the full number line on the copyright page and the ISBN on a slip glued to the lower rear cover; that ISBN-slip point appears in only one dealer description and should be treated as unconfirmed until checked against a second copy
- Publisher imprint reads Walker Books, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Michael Rosen (illus. Helen Oxenbury) |
| Publisher | Walker Books, London |
| Year | 1989 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | UK Walker Books 1989 first printing: oblong (landscape) quarto in terracotta textured cloth-grain boards lettered in black on the spine… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
UK Walker Books 1989 first printing: oblong (landscape) quarto in terracotta textured cloth-grain boards lettered in black on the spine, pictorial double-page endpapers that differ front and rear, in Helen Oxenbury's pictorial dust wrapper; ISBN 0-7445-1135-6. Dealers describe it as first edition, first printing without citing a printing statement or number line, so identification rests on the 1989 Walker imprint, that ISBN, and the absence of later-impression wording on the copyright page. Price present at the flap is a jacket point only; a high proportion of surviving copies are price-clipped. One dealer listing describes the Walker copy as "pictorial boards" rather than terracotta cloth — that copy lacked its jacket, and the better descriptions agree on terracotta cloth-grain boards. The first American printing (Margaret K. McElderry Books, ISBN 0-689-50476-4, orange/terracotta boards lettered in black) is reported with the full number line on the copyright page and the ISBN on a slip glued to the lower rear cover; that ISBN-slip point appears in only one dealer description and should be treated as unconfirmed until checked against a second copy.

## Is this the true first?
UK Walker Books, London, 1989 is the true first: Walker originated and commissioned the book, both creators are British, and it took the 1989 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (overall and 0-5 division). The first American edition — Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster), New York, 1989 — followed in the same year, is consistently catalogued by dealers as "first American edition" rather than a first, and was a 1989 Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book. Both 1989 editions are collected and should be named separately; the census claim is confirmed. Month-level precedence between the two 1989 issues is not established in the sources consulted.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Walker's 20th-anniversary (2009) and 30th-anniversary collector's (2019, one of 1,000, with signed print) issues, the Little Simon pop-up (2007) and the snow-globe issue are later printings, several of them marketed as a "first edition" of that format — first thus only. Copies stamped "exclusive edition for Premier Direct Group PLC" are a later special-sales printing, not the first. A conventional book-club issue is not separately documented.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *We're Going on a Bear Hunt* by Michael Rosen (illus. Helen Oxenbury) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/were-going-on-a-bear-hunt
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.