THE BEAR MUSEUM

The Berenstains Before the Bears: Baby Books

This is a regular series of features at the Bear Museum which focus on the early career of Stan and Jan, before they created the Bear family in 1962. These works are part of a traveling exhibition, Child’s Play on the Crabgrass Frontier, organized by The Strong Museum of Play. Accompanying the exhibition is a lavishly illustrated book, Child's Play: The Berenstain Baby Boom, 1946-1964: Cartoon Art by Stan and Jan Berenstain.

Stan and Jan's ever-rising professional profile [as cartoonists] drew the attention of an editor at Macmillan. Since they were so good at creating cartoons about kids, he wondered, why not try their hands at a book on the subject, as well? Dr. Spock's Baby Book was, of course, the Bible of child-rearing in the early  Fifties and seemed a natural target for a disrespectful spoof. Thus was Berenstains' Baby Book born, soon to be followed by a sequel, Baby Makes Four, and several other childrearing-themed books.

Much of the humor of these books centered on straightforward satire of the "by-the-book" and "he's-just-acting-out" school of parenthood. Stan and Jan were particularly adept at mimicking the pompously professional jargon of the early self-help tomes.

By Mike Berenstain

From Child's Play: The Berenstain Baby Boom, 1946-1964: Cartoon Art by Stan and Jan Berenstain.

Top: TOILET TRAINING, Gradually, as Baby grows and gains in confidence he can be introduced to the big toilet and left pretty much to his own devices; AND BEAT HIM WHEN HE SNEEZES; 1960.

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