(Mel Evans/AP) - Jan Berenstain.
Jan Berenstain, the children’s author who with her husband created the Berenstain Bears, whose winsome antics filled more than 300 picture books and helped guide millions of young readers through the vicissitudes of childhood, died Feb. 24 at a hospital near her home in Bucks County, Pa. She was 88.
She had suffered a stroke last week, her son Michael Berenstain said. Her husband, Stan Berenstain, died in 2005 at 82.
Few American youngsters finish elementary school without taking a walk “down a sunny dirt road deep in Bear Country” and getting to know Mrs. Berenstain’s treehouse-dwelling ursine family — hapless Papa in his overalls, wise Mama in her polka-dot dress and kerchief, and their three archetypal children.
Since the release in 1962 of the first Berenstain Bears volume, “The Big Honey Hunt,” the series has sold about 260 million books. Those books have been translated into almost two dozen languages and have inspired television shows, amusement park rides, McDonald’s Happy Meal collectibles and animal crackers made in the bears’ images.
Over the years, the Berenstains drew criticism for promoting long-outmoded gender roles and overly simple life lessons. But readers who love Bear Country consider it a place not unlike Mr. Rogers’s neighborhood, where a fixed storytelling routine and familiar characters bring comfort to children as they seek to navigate a world that becomes ever more complicated as they grow up.
In their books, Mrs. Berenstain and her husband seldom allowed the bear cubs to face more than one hurdle or affliction at a time. Over the years, they encountered a new baby, the first day of school, a trip to the dentist, bullies, stage fright, fear of the dark and jealousy — just a few episodes in the history of the Berenstain Bears family.
The books reinforced the sorts of lessons most parents try to impart on their children: Dentists aren’t as scary as they may seem, bullies aren’t as strong as they look, stage fright can be surmounted.
Bear Country morality was based largely on the Golden Rule rather than on religion. (Mrs. Berenstain was Episcopalian; her husband was Jewish.) Young readers closed Berenstain Bears books having learned that life is better when you are nice to others, and also when you keep a tidy bedroom.
Much of the wisdom contained in the Berenstain Bears books come from Mama Bear. Her relationship with Papa Bear, a sort of blundering foil, was occasionally attacked by critics. In a 1989 column in The Washington Post, columnist Charles Krauthammer called Papa Bear “the Alan Alda of Grizzlies, a wimp so passive and fumbling he makes Dagwood Bumstead look like Batman.”
The Berenstains often said that the Berenstain Bears parents were based on themselves. When Stan Berenstain died, Mrs. Berenstain told the New York Times that her husband had no qualms about Papa Bear.
“Nobody likes making a mother the fall guy,” she said. “Papa Bear has broad shoulders.”
Janice Marian Grant was born July 26, 1923, in Philadelphia, where she met Stanley Berenstain on the first day of art school. During their classes, they often went to the zoo and drew — among other animals — bears.
Can modest golem and a mercurial jinni find love in Lower Manhattan?
1368827928000
A science writer for The Washington Post, Margaret Webb Pressler decided to unravel the mystery of her husband’s biology.
1368825487000
The harrowing story of a black man pressed into sexual slavery after the Revolutionary War.
1368742926000The books Washington has been reading.
1368722950000
Steven Nadler’s fascinating survey of Golden Age Dutch culture, Cartesian philosophy and art connoisseurship.
1368662393000A novel about the unusual friendship between a South African refugee and an American expatriate.
1368630487000
Egan's biography of American West photographer Edward Curtis garners $7,500 and a week at the summer program in New York State.
1368624811000
Things fall apart when a young girl is left alone in the house with her emotional cousin.
1368573677000
The author of ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ returns with a novella for the Royal Ballet in London.
1368571595000
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon races to solve a mystery based on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”
1368504060000
The Irish poet will speak tonight at the Folger Library
1368477011000
Writer Thomas De Quincey must apprehend a murderer terrorizing London — or take the fall himself.
1368394543000The books Washington has been reading.
1368226868000
Author stuffs stale history lessons into his multi-generational journey through the City of Light.
1368136718000The Post Most: EntertainmentMost-viewed stories,videos, and galleries in the past two hours
Loading...
Comments