GravityGirl's Full Review: Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain - The Berenstai...
Note: I am using the same two paragraphs to begin all of my from my Berenstain Bear book reviews because they provide background information about the series.
The Berenstain Bears books have been around for years. They were popular twenty years ago, and they are still popular today. The Berenstains are a family of bears who live in a tree house in Bear Country. The family consists of Papa, Mama, Brother, and Sister Bear. Papa makes and sells wooden furniture, and Mama is a SAHM, although she did once dabble briefly with employment. The bears always wear the same outfits, and they are never disrespectful to their parents. Also, each book begins with a little poem that describes what the book is about.
Each book tackles an issue that children might/will face. Some of these issues are timeless- like having a new baby, moving, going to the doctor and dentist, fighting with a friend, having a messy room and much more. But some of the issues are more complex, like overscheduled children/families and peer pressure.
In the Berenstain Bears Get Into A Fight, we see what happens when bears stop being nice and start being real. The story seems to take place over the course of a single day. The fight starts when Sister accidentally dangles her foot over the edge of the bunk bed right into Brother’s face. As the text points out, “she didn’t do it to be rude. It was just one of those things that happens with bunk beds.”
Brother has something nasty to say about this, and Sister tells him to shut up. The fight escalates as the day progresses and the cubs continue to be mean to each other. As it begins to rain, the cubs are forced into the house and this leads to a confrontation- Brother and Sister are screaming at each other and Papa is yelling at them to stop yelling.
Mama intervenes and asks them if they can remember what they are fighting about. She goes on to say that arguing is something that happens- even when people love each other very much. She compares arguing to the rainstorm that is happening. As the storm ends and the rainbow comes out, the cubs hug and make up.
The illustrations are full of powerful emotional reactions as the cubs get angrier and angrier. There is also a scene where the cubs sit on opposite sides of their tree house (not the one they live in, but more like a tree fort) with a big red line drawn down the middle- this is so classic.
It would have been nice if Mama talked more about trying not to fight- maybe teaching the cubs some strategies to try to avoid fighting. Instead, the message seems to be that people fight (even when they love each other) but the fights don’t last long and then you can make up. What about not fighting at all? Yes, some quibbling is inevitable, but the cubs really take things a bit far- and it seems like it shouldn’t have escalated to the level that it did without parental intervention.
In fairness, the cubs do look silly-and from my adult perspective, petty- as they fight over nothing. And the very best part is when Mama puts two fingers in her mouth and whistles like she is hailing a taxi. Who knows what other tricks Mama has up her sleeve!
While I don’t exactly agree with the way fighting is treated in this book, I still highly recommend Berenstain Bears Get In A Fight. This is a good entry in the series- it is rather interesting to see the Bears being less than cheerful and helpful. The book doesn’t really teach anything about not fighting, and that’s a bit of a shame because this could have been an excellent teaching opportunity.
The usually compatible Brother and Sister Bear are fighting--all day long! Mama Bear helps them realize that everyone argues once in a while, even wit...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
The usually compatible Brother and Sister Bear are fighting--all day long! Mama Bear helps them realize that everyone argues once in a while, even wit...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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