The Berenstain Bears and the Slumber Party

Sometimes you get a peek into what the whole big world of a franchise property that you never see might be like, not like "I wonder what the Iraq War was like in the Berenstain Bears' world" but more like Sister goes to a slumber party and it turns into a rager and a fiasco and all the kids pull together the next day to clean it up and that's nice but instead of Sister who's all "I NEVER WANNA HEAR THE WORD PARTY AGAIN HNNGGYEAGGHGHH" you'd rather find out a little bit more about Lizzy, who's more like "Hey guys, remember how we just destroyed this house with a party and now we're cleaning it up with another party? That's ironic!" or Queenie, who wears a tracksuit and big hoop earrings and invited the bad olda boys who trashed the show more place. Or the olda boys, man. Where are the olda boys the day after? What cold pizzas and warm forties of OE are they killing before going to the lake? show less

I really enjoyed this book for three reasons. First, the character development of Sister Bear (the main character) and her parents strongly relate to children growing up with their parents. Sister bear is invited to a slumber party at Lizzy’s house. Before Sister Bear attends the sleepover Momma Bear teaches her about responsibility and privileges, but as soon as she arrives she forgets. Lizzie’s parents are out of town and the party gets out of control and the police are called. This relates perfectly to kids taking advantage of their parents. It’s not until something bad happens that kids realize they did something wrong. Next, there is a surplus of descriptive language used throughout the book. For example, “And they show more certainly hadn’t planned on a rip-roaring, earsplitting, popcorn-throwing, soda-squirting, party for half the cubs in neighborhood”. This perfectly explains the events that went on during the slumber party. Lastly, the illustrations added depth to the story. They captured what was going on throughout the book and showed the emotions of all the bears throughout the story. Overall, the main idea of this book is learning about responsibility and not taking advantage of your parents when they are away from home. show less

Although I enjoyed this book, as I do of all the Berenstain Bear books, I did not like this book as much as I expected I would for various reasons. The poem at the beginning of the story is always one of my favorite things to read in these books: “Sometimes little bears’ good behavior ends when they pack their pajamas and stay over with friends.” This book also contained the classic elements of a Berenstain Bear book that I really enjoy. Some include the beautiful illustrations, text features, characters and character development. This book also focused a lot on family interactions and dynamics. It contained a wonderful moral of privilege and responsibility. However, what I was really disappointed with in this book was that the show more story lacked its usual organization and flow of their other books. I don’t like it when books are all over the place and are a little bit unrealistic. It bothered me as a reader when this story jumped around too much and also tried to add too many elements to the plot. The sleep over was a good idea, however, I felt that the story got a little messy when the authors tried to add party crashers, rowdy boys, noise complaints, and police. It was just a little bit unbelievable that the babysitter, who was an adult, couldn’t control the situation. Although this is fiction, and the story isn’t too unbelievable, the lack of organization was just something that I usually do not see in the books of this series. This was a little disappointing, but overall the book was still age appropriate and taught a good lesson. show less

Review: These series of books by Stan and Jan Berestain are very well written and have great illustrations. This book was very interesting and fun. It was about a real life situation that could happen to anyone, and the reader can relate to the story.

Summary: This story starts with sister bear getting invited to a slumber party at her friend Lizzy's house. After having a long talk with her parents about privilege and responsibility, they finally agree to let her go. When sister bear gets to Lizzy's house for the sleepover, she realizes that Lizzy's parents were going out of town for the night so they were home alone. Lizzy invited only a few friends to sleepover, but the word got out that she was having a party. Before Lizzy realized, show more she had so many people at her party and it was getting out of hand. The neighbors called the police because it was too loud. The police called all of the children's parents to come pick them up. Mama was very angry and grounded sister bear. After Papa talked to Mama and made her realize that it was not all sister bears fault and that they should have checked with Lizzy's parents before sister bear went to sleep over there. All of the bears learned a great lesson that day.

Argument: Overall I think that children will love reading this book. The Berenstain Bears books always write about meaningful things that children can relate to.

The message of the book is about privilege and responsibility. In the book mama bear says "sleeping over at a friends house is a kind of special privilege. And something that goes with privilege is responsibility." Sister bear said "privilege means being allowed to do stuff, and responsibility means not messing up." They said the meaning in the book and makes the reader understand the message easier, especially for children. show less

I loved The Berenstain Bears as a child, and I'm thrilled that my children love them too. We've had Berenstain Bear books and movie/videos in our collection for years.... each of my 5 children have loved them, and has gone through a Berenstain Bears phase at some point..... my youngest, 7, is currently in this phase. These books are part of our bedtime reading every night.

These books can be wordy, but they all come with a moral theme that will open students eyes to what is expected of them as they get older. I would recommend this for grades 2-5 and it should be guided by the teacher because there is plenty being said and it is important that the readers understand the plot.

I like this book because its not only for children to teach them about responsibility and privileges, but also for adults, to tell them that trusting your children is important, but you have to play the part in it as well, by making sure nothing bad will happen.