Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 10, 1994 TAG: 9410150006
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bear Country is home to the Berenstain Bears, a family known to young children for making problems such as nightmares, bad manners, baby sitters and scary trips to the doctor "bearable." This series of books is called First Time Books. They have more pictures than words. They are usually read to you.
Now you and the Berenstain Bears are growing up and facing new challenges.
Stan and Jan Berenstain, writers and illustrators of "The Berenstain Bear" books for more than 30 years, have created Big Chapter Books.
Big Chapter Books feature the same Berenstain characters that you grew up with: Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Brother Bear and Sister Bear as well as other favorites such as Officer Marguerite, the female bear cop.
But now the books are for big kids (ages 7-10) and feature much loftier topics such as drug abuse - "The Drug Free Zone" and boy-girl relationships - "The New Girl in Town." Best of all, the stories are divided into chapters (just like mom and dad's books.)
According to Stan, a mother superior asked him and his wife to do a book on drug abuse 15 years ago. (A mother superior is a woman who is in charge of a religious establishment.) This was long before it was acceptable to discuss drugs with children.
Stan says kids like the Berenstain books because they are funny, but are about real subjects.
"Kids are very serious inside, but they want to be cool - even if they are terrified on the inside," Stan said explaining why he and his wife mix humor with serious topics.
Jan said her and her husband's insight into kids' concerns comes from remembering what it is like to be kids and working at home with their two sons.
"We actually saw how they learned new words," Jan said.
The Berenstain authors have two grown children: Leo and Michael and, now, four grandchildren.
"I remember the first time Leo put two words together," Jan said. "It was just before he turned 2 years old and he was sitting in my lap riding in the car. He was pointing out trucks on the road, saying 'truck, truck, truck.' Then a truck rode by and was so big it filled the whole window and Leo said, 'big truck.'"
The next time the Berenstain Bears encountered a big bear, Jan said, the bear picture more than filled the page.
Growing up around such creative parents led both Leo and Michael to creative jobs. Michael is an illustrator for children's books and Leo is a writer. Eventually, the sons offered to help out with the Big Chapter Books and are now doing most of the writing and artwork.
Stan said their mission is clear: "To keep kids reading, especially boys."
Stan explained that all too often when boys get older they stop reading books and may only read the sports page. And as children enter school, their parents stop buying them books because they think they get enough books at school.
"They're proving popular," according to Stan who said they began writing Big Chapter books because they received thousands of letters from children asking them to do just that.
Many readers of "The Berenstain Bear Big Chapter Books " want to know what is in store next for the bear family.
Stan said the bears will face a topic familiar to most kids: bigotry. Bigotry is when people (or bears, in this case) treat other people unkindly because they look, think or act differently. It is common for people to avoid someone because that person looks different. That is what happens with Papa Bear when new bears move in the neighborhood.
The new neighbors not only look different, they are different. They are panda bears.
Granted panda bears don't look anything like Papa Bear, but it does not mean they are any better or worse than he is - a lesson Stan said Papa Bear learns in the book.
The bears will also experience dress codes in schools - a big topic in big city schools today. Then the bears will learn about how bears change as they grow older in the "Giddy Grandma" book.
The best yet may be a book based on an idea from a Berenstain granddaughter. She suggested that Freddy, the bear nerd, get a crush on a girl bear nerd. So, that's what happens at "Camp Crush."
"The main thing we try to do is teach, not preach," Stan said.
When asked if Brother Bear and Sister Bear will ever go to college, Stan laughed and said he believes the bears are "stuck in elementary school."
"[Bear Country] is a one-school town," he added.
Jan said her family has enjoyed creating and writing books about the bears and their troubles and triumphs.
"We love doing them and we have the kids in mind all the time. It's hard fun," she said.
Stan said: "The bears are very real to us. It sounds silly but it's true."
by CNB