The Bear Essentials: Everything Today's Hard-Pressed Parent Needs to Know About Bringing Up Happy, Healthy Kids

By Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain

Book Overview

From the creators of the original, bestselling children's issue series, First Time Books(R), comes a practical, down-to-earth guide to handling the very toughest parenting challenges. Combining humor... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375832661
• ISBN13: 9780375832666
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher

Customer Reviews

Stan and Jan Berenstain Provide Parenting Essentials

Being written by such popular authors/ilustrators, I'm kind of surprised to see no reviews for "The Bear Essentials." This is a parenting book from the Stan & Jan Berenstain, the creators of Berenstain Bears and the "First Time" books. This book covers everything from nighttime fears to stranger danger. I don't normally feel the need to include anything like this, but, just a small disclaimer -- I am not a parent myself. I just happen to have read the book. That said, "The Bear Essentials" seems to be a pretty well-written book that contains some interesting, practical, down-to-earth advice. Everything is organized into sections, including "And Baby Makes Four," "Starting School, "Sex Ed 101" and "Countering Peer Pressure." The general theme of the book seems to be very much "let the child be him or herself," whenever possible, while still setting reasonable rules and guidelines. This certainly seems like sound advice, but it still surprises me sometimes how much parents want to control aspects of their kids lives, from everything that they read ("That's a baby book!" -- ugh!) to the sports and activities that they participate in. The Berenstains state up front that they aren't parenting experts, merely authors who also happen to be parents and have some practical advice to offer. This book doesn't dodge away from the hard topics, covering stranger danger, bullies, nighttime fears, the "Big Question" (religion) and much more. Each section generally presents a thoughtful analysis, though some areas aim for humor as well. One thing in which the Berenstains seem to have taken a pretty weird line is with their recommendations regarding television. Not with any of their general recommendations, but one in particular -- that PBS seems to have the only reasonably decent children's programming. Have to take a hard disagree here -- while PBS has some good content, they are to a great degree being left in the dust by Playhouse Disney, Noggin (both commercial free) and Nick Jr. (airs commercials.) The idea that PBS is the only network with decent children's programming is outmoded. In fact, given the flack PBS has received for being "too liberal" (which I only sort of agree with), I'm kind of surprised that such seemingly down-to-earth, conservative authors would recommend it (though PBS does air the program that's based on their books, so maybe that brings it into focus.) The book is peppered with illustrations throughout, of both the bears from the Berenstain Bears books and of children/parents from the "First Time" books. It also includes a handy list of all of the Berenstain Bear books published up to the time that "The Bear Essentials" was released, and also a very useful copy of "Brother and Sister Bear's Rules for Cubs" -- important tips regarding handling strangers and strange situations. All-in-all, this is a very well-rounded book sure to provide useful information for parents of children of all ages.