The Berenstain Bears and the Big Blooper

The Berenstain Bears

by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain

Sister Bear is over at Lizzy Bruin's house watching Trouble at Big Bear High--a big-cubs' video that they probably shouldn't even be looking at--in which two teen bears are having an argument. When one of them gets really really angry, he says a certain word. It's a word Sister has never heard before. At dinner that night Sister tries out this brand-new, stronger-sounding word. When Mama Bear recovers her senses, she has to explain to Sister all about a certain kind of word. It's the kind of word that nobody, not even adults and certainly not cubs, should use at any time, no matter how upset or angry they are.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Classics, Animals

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

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

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haha. This is about sister bear learning some new words from a teen movie that happened to be cuss words one day at a friends house. Then at dinner when she spills her milk, she uses them and shocks the family.

I’ve probably told this story before, but my brother and I were sitting in the backyard with the kids. He and the niece were talking and the nephew was off looking for bugs. My brother loves talking potty talk and taught his kids well. They were talking about farting and my brother was calling that the f-word. The niece comes up and says, “I know what the f-word means”, and he asked her what it was. We both expected her to say fart. Well, she comes out with the f-bomb. I couldn’t help myself and I began laughing. It was too funny. My brother calmly asks here where she heard that and the niece says, “from you daddy.” He says, oh. Then the niece says, “one night you told me the word was Luck with an F.” That made it all the funnier. She was laughing with us now. My brother finished by telling her that she needs to not use that word at school or church as it could get her in trouble. He said it’s an adult word. She seemed ok with this. I haven’t heard her use it sense, but it was funny. I am terrible about not laughing at things like that.

That was the niece, I’m sure the nephew will do that soon enough. Right now, he mostly likes to do body part words.

The nephew read this and he wanted to know what she said. I told him that we don’t know. It could be many things. He couldn’t let it go. He wanted to know the word. I told him it was a mystery. He thought this was a funny story and he gave this 3 stars. The niece didn’t read it.

[Amara Tanith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. I almost don't know what to say. This was horrible, but in such a surprising way that I'm not even sure how to react. Normal Berenstain Bears books build up these (usually) horrible, (sometimes) hypocritical morals over 32 pages. This one didn't bother. The first ~20 pages were drivel, and then sudden in the last 9, the "don't use words that the Moral Guardians don't like" moral flies in, squawks, then flies away without so much as an explanation to why it was there in the first place.

A colorful metaphor, but perfectly appropriate. There was no reason to write this book. It came across as a pamphlet more than a picture book, with only the last nine pages having a thing to do with the moral--a moral, mind you, that I find gloriously immoral. But that's besides the point, amusingly. (It would have been my point, but... there's just so much else to complain about.)

Mama Bear's entire argument against "cuss words" is that she doesn't think they're very nice. Let's look at that again: she thinks they're not nice.

But what about other people's opinions? Oh, they don't matter to her.

But what about helping her children understand why the words "aren't nice"? Nope, still doesn't matter! She doesn't like it, and she's said so, so what more could there be to it? After all, why on earth would her children have opinions of their own? Or questions, for that matter?

Wait.

So, here's the bottom line: I really fucking hate these books. If you're planning on reading these to your children, don't. Read them some Little Bear. Some Arthur. Some Sesame Street. Anything but these.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Papa nor Momma bear addressed the fact that brother bear saw the same innapropriate movie as sister did. Why was it not okay for sister to see a movie with bad language, but it was okay for brother? Inconsistent writing and parenting

[Stef · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was so much build-up to Sister uttering a curse word after watching American Pie for Bears or something, but then the story just ends, which totally ruined the book for me. Mama's like, "Nobody should say those words, right, Sister?" but Sister had already fallen asleep. It was an extremely lazy way to conclude the story.

[D'Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good way to teach your kids not to say "phooey" or "fudge" (the examples they use in the book). Probably not so useful to get your kid to stop dropping f-bombs. Because, you know, you're way past Berenstain Bears territory at that point.

[Skylar Burris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book teaches kids that, yes, their parents swear sometimes but, no, neither the parents nor the kids should swear. Why? Because it isn’t “nice,” but, more importantly, it’s lazy and too easy a habit to fall into. This is not the best of the Berenstain Bears offerings but, what can I say? My son loves these books. They appeal to kids by addressing every possible parenting fail, and then making the parenting fail a-okay in the end. I wish all my parenting fails were neatly wrapped up in 32 pages.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of things seemed to have been dropped over the course of this book, such as Brother not getting in trouble for watching the same movie.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know the point of this book is to teach kids not to swear, but it just had me cracking up the whole time. It made me think back to my own childhood and the first time my sister said a bad word in front of my parents. I gave it a high rating because it made me laugh, but I am not convinced that this book will do anything to keep kids from cursing, especially since the only explanation as to why is was bad was just to say that they aren't nice words. A lot of kids I know would follow that up with, "But WHY aren't they nice? What makes them not nice?" Also, it might just make them more curious about what other bad words are out there, since it mentioned there being a lot of words in the video that Sister didn't know.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was fine, but the ending was a tad...abrupt. Not sure what I would have done differently, because, really, what can you say, but I did feel like it just...stopped. Hope Sister learned her lesson. I did appreciate the comment about how using words like that can become a habit. Easy to not use them if you never start. I didn't start, so it's easy, now that I'm an adult, to not slip up and say something I shouldn't. Because, no, children, not all adults curse, and it doesn't make you seem more grown up if you do. If just makes you seem vulgar and less educated. There are SO MANY better words to express frustration! :)

[chucklesthescot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lizzy and Sister watch a film with bad language and Sister decides to try out a new word on her family when she spills her drink. Brother finds it funny but Mama is not impressed with the language. Papa as usual is no help at all! I liked the story and the way Brother and Papa were acting. Good story.

[Kapra McMichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

-Sister Bears learns a bad word
-Good for teaching manners to kids

[Michelle Cropper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great for teaching little ones not to use foul language.

[DrosoPHila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't swear kiddies!!!

[Heather Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

megan summer reading 2016, children's book, picture book, series, berenstain bears, swear words, first grade, second grade

[Danielle Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lessons

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars--Kids picking up on naughty words and repeating them has been something adults have struggled with since the invention of naughty words (and kids).

The Bears books have always seemed out of a different era (this book, from 2000, depicts characters using rotary dial phones), and that's a big part of the series' comforting feel. Others might see them as out of touch and old-fashioned.

I agree with the others who pointed out that Brother Bear was allowed to watch the teen movie with bad language (while he's the older brother, he certainly isn't a teenager), while Sister was the only one who ended up getting in trouble for it. The ending was also strange and abrupt.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what I expected from this book, but it was okay. It would been better if it was longer because I didn't like the ending or if there was a different ending it would have been better. The end would have been more interesting if Mother Bear would have called Liz's mom or something about what happened. Illustrations are the usual illustrations as any other book about the Bearenstain Bears.

[Pamela Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sister Bear hears a word she shouldn't have and decides to use it at home. Mother Bear is NOT impressed and a discussion about appropriate language takes place. Would make a great discussion starter with young children.

[Phyllis M. Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well...that's one way of doing it

[Al Karrar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good

[Viviana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lol

[Sarah Bramlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt this handles the topic of bad words perfectly!

[Gabrielle Zdep · Rating 4 out of 5]

stood in the bookstore and read through this with my friend for nostalgia, humor, and Sister Bear's ridiculous facial expressions. IT COUNTS TOWARDS MY READING CHALLENGE, OKAY

[Chris Hays · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a hard book to get across to a 3 year old who doesn't know the difference between random made up words and naughty words.

[Sally]

At least this one didn't have a Bible verse at the beginning.

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sister learns a bad word from a program for older bears.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book Sister learns that not all words she hears are words that she should say. And are words that even adults should say either. Just because she hears others say them. The book is very similar but not 'exactly' like the cartoon so if you've seen the cartoon you won't be disappointed with the book.