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Berenstain Bears

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Image:BerenstainBears.JPG
The Berenstain Bears as seen in animation.

The Berenstain Bears are a fictional family of anthropomorphic bears created by Stan and Jan Berenstain in a series of very popular children's books.

The popularity of the books subsequently spawned numerous child-friendly television shows and computer games.

Contents

[edit] Setting

The family consists of Papa Bear, the woodworker father; Mama Bear, his homemaker wife; and their three children: Brother Bear, Sister Bear, and baby sister Honey Bear.

Stories are set in Bear Country, a society comprised totally of bears. Story lines typically follow the Bear family as they deal with topics relevant to both children and parents.

[edit] Inspiration

The inspiration for the characters came when the Berenstains' sons, Leo and Mike, were learning to read, and their parents decided to try their hands at creating children's books, themselves. This book became The Big Honey Hunt, which was published in 1962 by Dr. Seuss's Beginner Books imprint

[edit] Evolution of Characters

The bear family in The Big Honey Hunt consisted of Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and son Small Bear (later Brother Bear). They began their own line of books about the bears in 1974 with The Berenstain Bears and the New Baby which added daughter Sister Bear to the family and changed Small Bear's name to Brother Bear. In 2000, baby sister Honey was introduced with The Berenstain Bears and Baby Makes Five, after having dealt with Mama Bear's pregnancy in the previous book The Birds, the Bees, and the Berenstain Bears. Between the two books, there was a contest for readers to name the baby.

[edit] Supporting Characters

  • Too-Tall Grizzly, the school bully
  • Queenie McBear, Too-Tall's on-and-off girlfriend and friend of Brother and Sister
  • Fred Bear, Brother's favorite but long-lost cousin
  • Lizzy Bruin, Sister's friend
  • Bonnie Brown, Originally introduced in the Big Chapter Book series, she is a part-time model who attends Bear Country School and becomes friends with Brother and Sister and at times the love interest of Brother's and vice versa.
  • Raffish Ralph, a Bear Country crook who also goes by the name Ralph Ripoff
  • Professor Actual Factual Bear, runs the Bearsonian Institution
  • Farmer Ben, local farmer, neighbor, and family friend
  • Mrs. Ben, Farmer Ben's wife

[edit] Berenstain Bears Media

[edit] In Print

The Berenstain Bears have appeared in hundreds of stories, both in picture book and chapter book format.

[edit] In Television

The Berenstain Bears have appeared in three animated series.

[edit] Original Series

Six NBC Holiday specials were produced in the late 1970's and early 1980's. This 85 series was produced by Southern Star Productions in 1985, and featured two 11-minute stories per episode. While the first story to be shown was usually an adaptation of one of the books, a new story would make up the second half of the program. Some of these new stories prominently featured a villain in the form of Archweasle McGreed, who was out "to take over Bear Country lock, stock, and honeypot." Unlike most of the characters from the books, McGreed was created entirely for the cartoon, but managed to find his way into several novel books.

[edit] 2003 Series

The latter cartoon is currently running on PBS and internationally. It has since been released on DVD The series also aired on PBS Kids with Seven Little Monsters from 2003-2004, and the full 30 minutes since September 2003.

[edit] In Computer Software

They have appeared in a variety of edutainment software. One example is "The Berenstain Bears: Camping Adventure," a game released on the Sega Genesis.

[edit] List of Books

[edit] Baby Board Books

[edit] Bear Scouts Books

[edit] Beginner Books

[edit] First Time Books

[edit] Step Into Reading Books

[edit] Big Chapter Books

[edit] Other

[edit] Praise & Comment

Some of the information in this article may not be verified by reliable sources. It should be checked for inaccuracies and modified to cite reliable sources.

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Over the years, the Berenstain Bears books have been the subject of much favorable comment from education professionals and the reading public.

"The Berenstains have the extraordinary ability to communicate universal experiences and uplifting messages,"

Laurie Norton Moffat, director of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.; NY Times, Nov. 30, 2005

"They were able to take the real issues of children's lives and make them entertaining and not preachy,"

Ilene Abramson, director of children's services at the Los Angeles Public Library; LA Times, Nov. 30, 2005

"Among the generation of children growing up in the '70s and early '80s, The Berenstain Bears books are spoken of like zen koans, or like biblical allegories."

Aemillia Scott, Flak Magazine Online, Nov. 30, 2005

[edit] Controversy & Criticism

The Berestain Bears books have drawn criticisms of Papa Bear portraying a bumbling, inept father figure. [1][2][3] As summarized in Stan Berenstain's 2005 November 30 obituary in the New York Times:

...In what might be seen as a tribute to the Berenstain Bears' ubiquity, critics for years have commented on the ursine clan's adherence to gender stereotypes, including Mama Bear's ever-so-brief fling at working outside the home, only to retreat to the cubs. Papa Bear's bumbling incompetence, compared with Mama Bear's warm, wise effectiveness, has spawned particular ire. [4]

The authors have in the past stated that the parent bears merely reflected their own personalities. "Papa and Mama are roughly modeled after us," Stan Berenstain said in a 1991 Philadelphia Inquirer article. "I'm not quite as dumb as he seems to be sometimes, and Jan is not quite as wise and patient as Mama, but she is Mama."

In 1999 Extreme Sports With The Berenstain Bears was released for the Game Boy Color. The game was rated "One of the worst games in the history of electronic games" by popular video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly.

[edit] References

1. "He is often wrong but never in doubt". Berenstain bears web site.

2. Charles Krauthammer in The Washington Post 1989, referred to "the postfeminist Papa Bear" as "the Alan Alda of Grizzlies, a wimp so passive and fumbling he makes Dagwood Bumstead look like Batman."

3. Mary Jo Kochakian, The Hartford Courant, 1989 asked "You have to wonder, doesn't Stan Berenstain have any self-respect?

4. Stan Berenstain obituary, 2005 November 30 New York Times.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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