Growing Up Berenstain: Son follows in parents' famous paw prints

BERENSTAIN: New books draw on Bible stories, verses

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

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Despite the fact that his parents, Stan and Jan Berenstain, have been the most prolific children's book authors to date, Michael Berenstain said he never felt as if they were too busy for him.

"Their home was sort of their creative world," he said in a recent interview at the Christian Book Expo in Dallas. "Their studio was part of the house, and I was in and out of it. I would lie on the floor of the studio while they were working, drawing. I would type on their typewriter. I would work on their light box while they were working. They may have not wanted me to interrupt them, but I never had any sense of that.

"They were always doing things, creative things, for me and my brother. They would make puppets for us, models and costumes. I remember a big horse costume, a two-person horse costume with the head and everything, that they made for us. I remember a whole train set diorama that they made for the trains at Christmastime with all the tunnels and trees on it. It was like the creative family factory, and they were the leaders."

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Bear tales sell well at Modesto-area Christian bookstores
BEAR FACTS
First authors/illustrators: Stan and Jan Berenstain, husband-and-wife team

First book: "The Big Honey Hunt," 1962, written at request of Dr. Seuss for his early reader series

Titles: More than 200 since inception

Best-selling title: "The Berenstain Bears' New Baby," 1974, 4 million

Sales: 3 million Berenstain Bears books sold annually in North America; more than 250 million sold since 1962

Other languages: Many languages, including current translations in Chinese and Arabic

Faith titles:12 books are under contract; four have been released so far, with two coming out in May and another two in August. They cost $3.99 each.

Family: The Berenstains' two children, Leo and Michael, work in the family business. Leo takes care of the business end, while Michael works with his mom to write and illustrate the books. Stan died in 2005 of cancer.

Michael: 57 years old, married to Andrea, 51. They have three children: Sarah, 24; Sam, 22; and Emily, 18. The family lives in Pennsylvania, about 15 minutes away from his mom's home/studio.

Their creativity obviously passed to the next generation. Michael, a children's book illustrator himself, began helping his folks in the mid-1980s when the Berenstain Bears emigrated to television and his parents couldn't keep up with all the books and other work. In the 1990s, Michael began working with them full time, work that has continued since the death of his father in 2005.

The newest project is a series of 12 faith-based books with the Bear family, published by Zonderkidz.

"My parents and I have always been aware that we've had a huge amount of enthusiasm from religious families, people of all religions, but especially from Christian families," Berenstain, 57, said. "So the idea of doing books specifically about faith issues has been in the back of our minds because that's so important to people who are big fans of our books."

At least one book, "The Berenstain Bears Love Their Neighbors," is a retelling of a biblical story, that of the Good Samaritan. Others use biblical themes or verses.

"We have one we're working on now called 'The Gift of Courage' that uses the story of David and Goliath as part of the story," Berenstain said. "Sister Bear uses that story in her own life of dealing with a bully. We're working on one called 'The Joy of Giving,' which is a Christmas story that deals with a Christmas play at church about the gift of the Magi. The kids in that story learn the true meaning of giving gifts at Christmas.

"Sometimes they're not based on biblical stories. One called 'Faithful Friends' uses quotations from the Bible, basically from Proverbs, and other quotations about friendship as illustrations of how to deal properly and faithfully with your friends and not treat them badly."

'Ears too low'

When Berenstain made the switch from working on his own to working with his parents, did he get any criticism from the two, who had worked together since they married in the 1940s?

"Sure," he said. "That's my mother, the keeper of the stylebook in her head. She would make my dad change things.

"I remember early on, I was doing a book for them and I had done sketches of the whole book. I went over to get approval and see if there were any corrections or changes. My mom said, 'That's fine, except there's just one problem: On the character bears, you've made the ears too low.' I said, 'Oh, I hadn't realized that. I'll change it.'

"So I take it back to my studio and as I'm looking at it, I thought, 'Doesn't look too low to me.' I'm thinking, this is pretty basic. I've been an artist a long time, and I should be able to see this. It's puzzling. Not that I mind changing it, but why am I not picking this up? I got out a whole bunch of Berenstain Bear books I had been using as a model. I start comparing and looking and lining things up, and they look the same to me.