Not Now Bernard

Story

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!”

Why we chose it

A very popular cautionary tale about the perils of ignoring children.

David McKee is a much loved writer and illustrator who won the Booktrust lifetime achievement award in 2020 in recognition of the joy his books have given generations of readers.

Where it came from

David McKee (1935 - ) trained as an artist and illustrator at Plymouth Art College. He started his career drawing cartoons for newspapers and magazines

His first book Two Can Toucan was published in 1964.

The idea for Not Now Bernard came to him in the bath, where he says he gets many of his best ideas. There is a debate among adult readers about whether the monster is real or whether Bernard is behaving like a monster. David McKee says that it can be read either way but he does think that children understand that we all have a monster inside us, which we have to control and they understand that the monster is Bernard.

Where it went next

Not Now Bernard has been published in Spanish, French, giant print and Braille

It has been adapted for the stage both by Ellen McDougall for The Unicorn Theatre in 2014 and, along with two of McKee’s other stories,by Daniel Buckroyd in, Not Now Bernard and other Monster Stories in 2015.

A new version with updated illustrations to reflect modern technology was published in 2020 to mark the books 40th anniversary.

Associated stories

Two other of David McKee’s picture books also feature monsters. The Two Monsters (1985) is another tale with a lesson: this time about learning to see another person’s point of view. In The Monster and the Teddy Bear (1989) Angela learns to rethink her opinion of monsters after a fierce monster causes chaos without the babysitting noticing.

A whole generation will recognise McKee’s drawing style from the 1970s Children’s Television series Mr Benn.

David McKee is also the author of the popular Elmer stories about the fun loving patchwork elephant.