Many of you, my readers, may remember The Berenstain Bears series as children, so perhaps you shall be interested to learn more about one of your childhood book series.
Stanley Berenstain and Janice Marian Grant both born in 1923, grew up during the Great Depression in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. They met in 1941 at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts. Stan was drafted into the army in 1943, serving until 1946. He was blind in one eye, so he only had limited service, but he spent most of his career as the medical illustrator at an army hospital in Indiana. And during his free time he began drawing cartoons and publishing them in magazines. Janice also had a career with the army, she worked a draftsman for the Corps of Engineers, also as an aircraft riveter, building the Navy's PBY flying boat.
Jan and Stan married right after the war in 1946, starting a career together as team cartoonists for magazines. Such as The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Collier's, and McCall. In addition to publishing their own magazine of their cartoons, all featuring focus humor about children and families.
Mr. and Mrs. Berenstain began their family with the birth of their son Leo in 1948, and adding their other son Mike in 1951. Both children being big Dr. Seuss fans, Stan and Jan figured to try their hand at writing their own children's books. They called it The Big Honey Nut, which had featured Mama, Papa, and Small Bear, and was published in 1962 with Ted Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) as editor and publisher. And then it continued for the next 43 years with over 200 books, until in 2005 Stanley Berenstain passed away.
As the books grew more and more popular, Mr. and Mrs. Berenstain added more characters; making their little bear family grow. Small Bear became Big Brother with the coming of Little Sister in 1974, and then later the arrival of Honey in 2000. The names "Mama", "Papa", "Big Brother", and "Little Sister" were kept for the ease of reading for their young fans, and also to emphasize their roles in the family.
Jan and Stan kept up the magazine cartooning along with the books until the '80s. Their son Mike had also followed in their footsteps; joining his parents with the magazines and then illustrating and co-writing the children's books in 1992.
Being one of the most popular children's series, The Berenstain Bears had five NBC seasonal specials, two seasons of Saturday morning cartoons on CBS, and a daily cartoon show on PBS that started in 2002. The characters have also been made into dolls, toys, games, puzzles, computer software, and clothing, just to name a few. During the '80s and '90s there were a number of Berenstain Bear Country attractions at amusement parks. But more recently have become exhibits at museums, one such as the Strong Museum in Rochester New York. There have also been four Berenstain Bear plays and musicals, including the highly successful musical Berenstain Bears Live in Family Matters.
Jan and her son Mike still continue to write, illustrate, and publish Berenstain Bears books today. They live in Eastern, Pennsylvania, which apparently looks a lot like Bear Country.
The Berenstain Bears is a series of about 300 books that have been translated into 23 different languages; most recently Icelandic and Arabic. There are more than 260 million copies printed.
According to The New York Times, the Berenstain Bears were almost the Berenstain Penguins, until the authors decided that bears are more human-like in the way that they stand on two legs and the mothers are very good mothers.
The Berenstain Bears website:
http://www.berenstainbears.com/
