The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race

The Berenstain Bears

by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain

Illus. in full color. Brother Bear in his little red car slowly but surely wins out against the yellow and blue cars in this tortoise-and-hare story.  

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Animals, Transport, Juvenile, Racing

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Stan and Jan Berenstain (often called The Berenstains) were American writers and illustrators best known for creating the children's book series the Berenstain Bears. Their son Mike Berenstain joined them as a creative team in the late 1980s.

Reviews

[Shannon]

This is basically the tortoise and the hare with a few extra characters thrown in. However, the rhyme flow well and the illustrations are entertaining. Kids should enjoy this, even if they do make the connection to the old folk tale.

[Katt Hansen]

A retelling of "The Tortoise and the Hare" in simple enough language that a child can easily try reading this one themselves with very little prompting. Cute story with fun illustrations. I was startled by the Easy Reader style - as all the other Berenstain Bears books in this series had been more of the variety of the 'read to' the child - but liked it all that same. This is a nice transition if you've been reading the other books to your child to allow them to try reading one to you.

[Adrianne]

My family owned this book growing up. I remember loving my mom's inflections when she read it.

Now I read it to my kids and they memorize it by age two. They love everything about this racing book, from the rhyming to Little Red's putt-putt-putting.

My favorite part continues to be Dead Bear's Curve.

[↜ƈɦǟռ☂ɛℓℓɛ↝]

★★★★The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race By Stan and Jan Berenstain
This one starts with 4 big, shiny, brand new, race cars and Brother Bears "Little Red." Little Red is left in the dust, when the flag drops. But fast doesn't always mean better, slow and stead, wins the race.

[Colin Garvey]

Listened to the audio book. It was a bit long, the voices could’ve been funnier. Do better

[Heather]

Kept me on the edge of my seat. Go red!

[Ashley Field]

Brother is in a car race in a little red car and all of the other cars disregard him as a racer. Even though he is little and small, he races and does not give up. Throughout the race the other cars cannot finish the race due to unfortunate events. The last car running decided to take a break and stop for food because little red was so far behind. He was so confident that he was going to beat the little car that he thought it would be okay to take a pitstop. But Brother's perseverance and determination allowed him to catch up and win the race! This book is a rhyming book which makes it fun for young readers. The theme of this book is hard work, determination and perseverance. It is important in many situations to work hard whether you believe you are the best or not. It also teaches children that even if they do think they are the best they need to do their best because you never know who might sneak up behind you if you are slacking.

[Nancy]

My grandchildren picked this book out, and asked me to read it. They could identify the colors of the cars. The story is rather like the race between the turtle and the hair. There are four big cars, and one little car, who just keeps putt putt putting along. Other drivers do bad things to win the race, but not the driver of the small car. This is a cute book, and my grandchildren were very attentive to my reading of it. December 2015

My little grandchildren were over today, and my granddaughter asked me to read this book. Andrew was reading some of the words. We had a nice snuggle while reading.

My grandchildren were over again, and Adellyn asked me to read this book once again.

Some adults may not like these kinds of books, but my grandchildren love the Berenstain Bear books. I have fun reading them, and asked Adellyn if she thought it sounded like the Tortoise and the Hare, and we had a nice discussion about it.

[Megan Gavin]

I thought this book was really well done. It was about a little bear in a car race who was not supposed to win. The other bears were cocky and ended up messing up. However, the bear in the little read car never quit or gave up. This would be a great story to explain to students to never give up. The pictures were really colorful and bright. The words constantly highlight the color words such as yellow, green, orange, blue, and red. There was also quite a bit of rhyming within it, so it students could start to develop a sense of rhyme as well.

[Kathy Ellen Davis]

I say concept books because there are four colors featured throughout the book, but, really, it's just a great story!

Told in rhyme, it's sort of like the tortoise and the hare, but when you're reading it you just can't figure out how little Red is EVER going to get to that finish line!

The illustrations are great,
the story simple,
and children can guess what words comes next, thanks to simple rhymes.

An oldie but a goodie!

[Jane]

The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race shows concept words for learning colors, directional words and teaches the winner is not always the fastest but the one with a steady pace that does not give up. The concepts of over, under, through, up and down are one of our goals for our children so to find a book that goes over them after we play games with them inside and on the playground, the book reinforces the concepts for the children.

[Dolly]

This is a cute story that is very similar to the story of "The turtle and the hare." Shows how being reckless, mean, cocky or a cheater can backfire. And how the underdog can sometimes come out on top. Cute story that the kids enjoy.

[chucklesthescot]

This was the bears version of the hare and tortoise story. It was ok with nice pictures but not really anything special compared to the other bears books. I think it was a lesser story as it didn't have the whole bear family. Younger kids will love making the car noises though.

[Margie]

My son Mark LOVED this book. It had cars and it rhymed...what more could he ask for. I ended up knowing this book by heart.

[Robin]

This is a great book. Helps with colors. The story rhymes and makes it easy for kids to remember parts and be able to read along.

[Bronda]

Such a Great book for kids

[Anna]

Read on a marathon BB book day in Austin, this one is a tale based on the Tortoise and the Hare and is written for younger readers.

Chosen by Logan (age 4)

[Alistair Parker]

it's about Bears having a big road race. They had like 5 cars, orange, green,blue,yellow and red.orange said rrr yellow said vroom green said grrr and blue said roar litte red said putt putt putt

[Sophie]

Dad got this one from the used book store and we read it once, but I wasn't too interested in this one.

[Benjamin Elliott]

a recasting of the tortoise and the hare story with cars. This doesn't appear to be part of the actual Berenstain Bears series or continuum, just a one-off with these characters.

[kristina]

Picture Book - Cars - Stories in Rhyme

[Shiny Ajit]

Excellent

[Heather]

Gift from Aunt Linda - William's birthday 2016

January 2017: William has started reading this book to me

[Emily]

Why are there no female racers?

[Danielle Williams]

Great

[Mary Kidd]

I really enjoyed rereading this for the first time in years. It's the classic tortoise and the hare story. Very enjoyable and easy reading.

[JJ Waggy]

This is kind of a spin on "The Tortoise and the Hare" in structure and it is a fun tale of how people get in their own way, but *oh my heck* the absolute lack of any metrical structure drove me up the wall. If I were reading this out loud, I would trip over so many things because it's missing feet and has all sorts of random ideas about what constitutes a couplet. It's a weird thing to say that "the writing gets in the way" when it's written for a three-year-old, but it does. The writing is about as smooth as the pothole that Yellow hit. Unfortunate, because the art is delightful--and the Bears family is never named, so this can be a stand-alone entirely.

[Lluepker]

This book is the story of the tortoise and the hare essentially. The fast cars all go too fast and get too arrogant. The little red car can not keep up but he just keeps putting along. Finally he passess all the cars after they've either crashed or stopped and he wins.

[Joshua Stormont]

This was the first book my grandmother read to me. It was partly a tool to be used to work on pronunciation. Good one to use with all the sounds a car makes. Great memories and still a fun one to read.

[The Book Box]

I read this book myself. I had to read it for summer reading and write a book report on it.