Magick1's Full Review: Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain - The Berenstai...
Some mornings just start out wrong. I think we have all had those days. You get out of bed and find that you feel grumpy, out of sorts, and things just set you off not matter how insignificant. Right?
I think everyone has a bad day every now and again. What happens on days like that? Sometimes you snip at your loved ones, children, co-workers or even people you don’t even know. It makes for a really long day and you wish you could just start all over, push rewind and make things go back to the beginning and step out of bed on a better note. Well, the bears aren’t the only ones facing these issues, we do to!
The Story
One morning, things started off on a bad note from the moment that brother and sister bear woke up. These two cubs share a room and they have bunk beds. Sister bear sleeps on the top bunk and brother is on the bottom bunk! Sister was up, stretching and waking up and dangled her feet over the edge of the bed, not realizing brother bear was up, in the same spot below and her feet were in his face. That is what kicked off the bad mood for brother bear.
He told his sister to get her dopey feet out of his face. She leaned down, looked at him and told him her feet were not dopey and they weren’t in his face. Then he shouted at her to get her dopey face out of his face. He was in a bad mood and the day had just started!
Sister snapped back “You shut up!” and she bounded down the hallway to the bathroom to get ready for the day. That made brother bear mad, but he was getting madder because sister was intentionally taking a long, long, long time in the bathroom getting ready. He had to get ready too. Therefore, he started shouting and knocking on the bathroom door. To which, papa bear came down the hall and admonished him for shouting at sister.
Sister bear came out, pleasantly saying good morning to papa bear and was smiling. The bad attitude progressed at the breakfast table. Both bear cubs were scowling at each other and they forgot to use their best manners (please, thank you).
The bear cubs went on with this attitude throughout the day, on the bus ride, school, and even when they got home. They cubs started playing with their toys and they took items that were theirs back from each other.
The bad attitude started affecting others in the house and bad weather moved in matching their anger at one another. They started shouting and yelling and papa bear got into it with them shouting and yelling telling them to stop shouting.
Mama stepped in to stop the ruckus and talked to the family and helped get them back to a reasonable mood, relaxed, no longer angry with each other. It’s the manner in which mama bear discusses the situation that makes the family think about what they were doing, why it started in the first place and get it off their chests so they could resume a happy family attitude.
Overall Impressions
One thing that I enjoy the most about these books by Jan and Stan Berenstain is the easy going nature the bear family has. No matter what the problem, the family is able to work through it together and get back to a happy family status. I enjoy the artistic representation of the bears and the looks they share when they are mad and angry and the way they look when they are happy!
Mama bear has a great ability to bring things back to a normal, peaceful place and make everyone feel good about what they have learned. My daughter enjoys reading this book, like the others, because it allows her to see that what she feels is normal and it can be resolved quite easily, by talking about her feelings. She always gets a laugh when the bear cubs are fighting. I think this is partly because she is an only child and cannot relate to the sibling rivalry and because she sees sometimes how silly things can look when the grumpy moods strike.
She asks questions about how to resolve her grumpy moods. Mind you, it doesn’t always work, but I do believe it helps. The bear family helps her see that she is not alone in her feelings and frustrations and it helps her understand that she can talk about it and get it out and make the grumpy feelings disappear rather than holding onto them and getting madder and angrier during the day. I believe this to be the best reward, next to helping her learn how to read.
It’s hard for all of us to talk about things that make us upset or mad, but it’s best for us to talk to relieve ourselves of the frustration so that we don’t make bad choices or hurt those around us that we love. Reading this helps me put into prospective the things that make me grumpy and to realize that there are much more important things out there!
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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