Not Now, Bernard

Product Information

Bernard is a small boy who tries and fails to get his parents’ attention; they’re just too busy to notice what he’s getting up to! Even when a monster appears in his garden and wants to eat him, all Bernard hears is, “Not Now Bernard!” This is a classic that I somehow missed as a child but it was well worth the wait. It's a very simple story for the very young and I think would be ideal for reading aloud to a reception or KS1 class. It concerns the systematic neglect of the eponymous Bernard and his subsequent demise at the hands of a monster he meets in his garden. The monster engages in some very upsetting and destructive behaviour but is also ignored and is ultimately punished by taking Bernard's role in the household and being put to bed with a glass of milk. My favourite bit is the look on the monster's face when he realises he has doomed himself to a life of suburban maltreatment. The illustrations of Bernard usually show him with unhappy expressions. Can you draw him in a happy mood? What will his face look like? What will his body language show?

Not Now, Bernard by David McKee | The British Library

Too soon, because the benefits of freedom lie unclaimed under the pyre of “retained” EU regulations that both Truss and Sunak promise to incinerate. And too late, because Brexit is the settled will of the people and any hint of a downside is sedition. Print off the template provided then your child can colour the mask and wear it to act out parts of the story. Write the monster’s diary Read the story aloud to your child allowing time to look closely at the illustrations as you do. Children are often fascinated with these, particularly when Dad gets hurt with the hammer and bitten by the monster! Talk about the book Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Use comic-creation software (e.g. Comic Life) to turn the story into a comic strip, or to create a story in one of Bernard’s comics.Anyone who pays an energy bill and does a weekly shop can feel the claws of a budget squeeze closing around the nation’s windpipe. There’s an ogre in the health service. “Not now, Bernard,” says Rishi Sunak. There’s a fiend in the financial outlook. “Not now, Bernard,” says Liz Truss. There are devils in your policy details. “Not now, Bernard!” The sentences in the story are all quite short. Could you use a connective to join some of them together? Does this improve the story? I thoroughly enjoy this story and whilst it is very funny it also makes you really think. Sometimes when people are too busy they really don't notice what is around them and what is happening. I think it is important to take from this that those little tasks can also be done later.

Not Now, Bernard | Centre for Literacy in Primary Education Not Now, Bernard | Centre for Literacy in Primary Education

Age 3-7 This classic picture book explores a theme which is very real to children, wanting adult attention and being ignored. Bernard’s parents are just too busy and distracted to take notice of Bernard even when he is replaced by a monster that has eaten him. A very amusing story which is just as appealing to adults as it is to children. The next resident of 10 Downing Street will find the garden crawling with monstrous economic and political menaces. A chorus of Bernards is raising the alarm. Economists, MPs, former Tory ministers, charities, trade unions, businesses, local councils – all can hear rustling in the bushes where a beastly crisis lurks, ready to savage the new prime minister.Tories now speak increasingly fondly of the outgoing prime minister, not because they remember him as a skilled leader, but because his unique skill is mesmerising them into forgetting what good government is meant to look like. Truss doesn’t have that magic touch. The Brexit booster wand sits awkwardly in her hand. Another favourite from my childhood that I wanted to revisit as a parent, I certainly didn't remember it being so bleak! The book is about a boy called Bernard who discovers a monster in the garden. Although it took me until the end of this book to realise this, as at first I thought Bernard had been eaten by a monster. It was actually in fact Bernard expressing his anger towards his parents who never made time to listen to him instead would just repeat “NOT NOW BERNARD”