Stan Berenstain

The best part: On the second page, inside Sister Bear's backpack, is a Valentine that says "My", a symbol of a heart, then a picture of a pair of pants, and then "4 You." Is that "My heart pants for you?" Who says that? That's just bizarre. "My heart shorts for you?" "...jeans for you?" None of those make any sense. It's next to one that's got a picture of a bee and then says "mine" underneath, obviously "Be mine." That's pretty common. Maybe just "My pants for you?" A bit direct for grade school, don't you think?

"Go use your imagination." "How do we do that?" Like they've never imagined anything in their lives. It's kind of bland. It just seems like they're copying this older story instead of being very imaginative. It's like the writer was being lazy.

There's no real point. Pretty much everything is interchangeable. The characters are interchangeable. The plot points could have happened in any order.

Huh? I'm so confused. It's like they didn't even care enough to finish the book.

Well, that was a complete lack of a story. This is from a time when people thought that you had to explicitly teach people these things. You don't!

Maybe they could have a more natural consequence, like not being able to find what they're looking for, or falling over things that have been left in the middle of the floor. That happens too, and that could be a realistic consequence instead of Mama making threats because she's being taking advantage of as a parent.

The doctor prescribes Papa some medicine for his cold, which is not a thing that exists. There is no medicine that gets prescribed for colds. They're viruses, not bacteria. But, hey.

It's a good message, just not a very interesting story.

I'm not really sure what the message is. It seems to have a message, but then loses it.

It's just supposed to be a lift-the-flap book, but I think by the time the kids are old enough to lift the flaps without just tearing them to shreds, they're kind of beyond this. Maybe most kids aren't as destructive as mine was.