Quick — check your bookshelf and tell me how many Berenstain Bears books you can find. We’ve got at least a dozen. They’re the ones my kids always circled in the book catalogs when they were preschoolers. Those thin paperbacks with bright colorful pictures of the Bear family. We could always relate to the stories.
I read today that Stan Berenstain died in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, at the age of 82. Along with his wife Jan and later his two sons, he published over 200 Berenstain Bears books. His legacy is millions of children who have learned to read from his simple storybooks. The Berenstains dealt with many of those tough issues of childhood: starting school, going to the doctor or dentist, fighting over toys, messy rooms — and my personal favorite: Too Much Birthday.
I like his books because they bring up good family discussions — and they’re also short enough to read at bedtime when I can hardly keep my eyes open.
What I didn’t know until I read this article on the AP Wire from the Philly News is that Stan and his wife Jan met in art school in 1941 and used to draw weekly cartoons for magazines. They were encouraged by none other than the legendary Theodore Giesel (Dr. Seuss) to start writing for children. Giesel was then an editor at Random House. And the rest, as they say, is history.
An article on Boston.com says this:
Despite changes in society in the last four decades, little has changed in “Bears Country.”
“Kids still tell fibs and they mess up their rooms and they still throw tantrums in the supermarket,” Stan Berenstain told The Associated Press in 2002. “Nobody gets shot. No violence. There are problems, but they’re the kind of typical family problems everyone goes through.”
I read on the official website that the Berenstains just released an autobiography, Down a Sunny Dirt Road, published by Random House. You can read an excerpt from the book here. How wonderful that the couple took the time to write an autobiography to record their personal journey toward becoming best-loved book authors.
Mr. Berenstain will surely be missed around the world.
