The Berenstain Bears' New Baby

Overall a pretty cute book, and the very first in the Berenstain Bears series, you can tell when you look at the art style for this compared to later books. A bit too cutesy, but then, the first books in any series tend to be a bit more rough compared to later installments.

I had conflicting feelings about this book because although it is not one of the best books I have read, I feel that it serves a specific purpose and addresses a complex situation in a gentle and positive manner. The language used in this story is easy to understand for young readers, but I too had fun reading it from the perspective of an adult. In fact, I enjoyed the way the authors simplified the challenging topic of inviting a new baby into a home with another child. The detailed, colorful illustrations are perhaps the most powerful characteristic of this book, as they not only coincide with the story, but they also enhance the story dramatically. For example, the story refers to all the interesting activities for a young bear to do show more in Bear Country, but there are no examples of these activities in the text. Instead, the pictures show the small bear snorkeling, fishing, looking at a spider, flying a kite, etc. Without the illustrations, I feel the story would be uninteresting. The big idea of this story is that children can welcome a new addition to the family, especially with support of the parents. show less

In my opinion this a great book, especially for readers who are or are becoming big siblings. I liked this book because even though the characters are bears they are very believable. They do and say things that every normal human would. For example, they talk just like humans saying stuff like "Being a big brother is going to be fun." Dialogue makes the characters seem more real and will help the readers to relate to it more. Another thing I really liked about this book is that it really broadens their perspective. Most kids know that their mom and dad can have babies, but do they know that animals have babies too? On the first page of the book it says "Down a sunny dirt road, over a long bridge, up a grassy hill, deep in Bear Country, show more lived a family of bears- Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Small Bear." This will show the readers that not only do we have families, but animals such as bears have families too. Overall, the message of this book was too show the readers that growing up isn't so bad because you might get a new baby brother or sister. show less

The Berenstain Bears’ New Baby tells how Small Bear got a new, larger bed–-very useful, since Sister Bear was soon to be born, and could use his old bed.

This is a standard kind of children’s book–-what happens when a child gains a younger sibling? I like this one a bit better than Thumper’s Little Sisters, which I reviewed earlier.

The story begins with Small Bear waking up and finding he is too big for his bed, so he and Papa Bear go out to make him a new bed, and Mama Bear pats her belly and says “You’ve outgrown that snug little bed just in time!” And ‘just in time’ it is, indeed. By the time Papa Bear and Small Bear get back, Mama Bear’s belly is quite a bit smaller, and a baby is lying in his old bed. Small show more Bear reflects that it will be fun to be a big brother, and so it ends.

One thing I like about this story is that Small Bear doesn’t dash off and cry out that he hates his new sister or anything like that. It’s very common in these kinds of stories for the older sibling to be quite put out by the new baby–fair enough, I guess it’s probably common enough in real life, too. Still, it’s nice to have some books where the older sibling reacts positively to the news.

(The full reviews is posted on my blog.) show less

Small Bear (soon to be renamed as Brother Bear) wakes up one day and finds out his bed is too small for him!

So he and his dad go out to make a new bed. And when he gets home, his old bed is given to his new baby sister.

There was no discussion with Small Bear beforehand that he was going to have a new baby sister. There's no discussion in the book about how a baby might affect your life, either for good or bad.

This is not how most people raise children today, I think, nor is it the best way to raise children. Additionally, nowadays it's generally advised that if you're going to hand down the old crib that you dismantle it well before the baby arrives so that your older child doesn't feel directly displaced.

I don't think this book is show more going to be very useful to anybody expecting a second child.

Incidentally, how much older than Sister is Brother bear? In most books, it's written that they're two years apart, but in this book he's clearly intended to be three or four or five in human terms. Makes my head hurt! show less

The Berenstain Bears books are great for children to read outside of the classroom as they are both entertaining and explore issues relating to family and social relationships. There use in the classroom may not be as beneficial, but the themes explored are universally important to the age group being targeted and having these books on the classroom shelf wouldn't be a bad idea.

This is such a good book. I think that this book should be read in young learner classrooms all over the country. Of course it is Berenstain Bears so it is an absolute classic, but it is also a great story. There are so many children that deal with a new baby in the family every year they need some sort of support system that will help them learn and progress through the event. This is just the book to do it.