The Berenstain Bears and the Excuse Note

My daughter loves the Berenstain Bears. The books help her to improve her reading and comprehension skills, and the topics are easy for a preschooler / elementary school child to grasp. They teach children about values, and this book focuses on exaggerating the truth and making excuses to get out of doing something that is not well liked. I hear these type of comments from time to time from my little one. When you can relate Sister Bear's behavior to your own child's and ask them questions about times when they may have done something like this, it reinforces good behavior in a positive manner.

My step-son loves the Berenstain Bears. My husband and I love the message of each book. Each topic relates to real life, we absolutely think they're a necessity!

The Excuse Note touches on the subject of forged notes - something nearly every student has probably tried from time to time. Following a minor injury, Sister enjoys not having to participate in P.E. and writes a note saying she needs to stay inactive until... well... until she feels like participating again! It's a cute story, but if you think you've heard this before from the Berenstain Bears, you're right. Excuse Note was originally published as part of the Cub Club Book Club, a special limited edition series of Berenstain Bears books published in 1992-1993. This is the second book of the series to be re-issued - "The Berenstain Bears Catch the Bus," published last year, which was originally also a part of the Cub Club entitled, "The Berenstain Bears On Time.") Perhaps there is a trend here, and many of those stories will reprinted, especially consdering Stan and Jan are in (and have been for a few years) the process of transferring storytelling and ilustrating duties to their sons, Michael and Leo, who have actually been writing many of the recent books though still (wisely) published under the name of Stan and Jan. Which raises the question: will the series ever end? It could be said that the series is running out of original ideas - there are over 300 books to the Bear Family's credit now (40 years!), and, as we see by this title, we are beginning to see duplicates. But there are, of course, topics which the Bear Family has yet to tackle. The Chapter Books have tackled everything from first dates to smoking, but I think the First Time Series would welcome titles touching on topics like flying for the first time or visiting firefighters and/or police officers.