Berenstain Bears
Encyclopedia
The Berenstain Bears is a series of children's books
created by Stan and Jan Berenstain
. The books feature a family of anthropomorphic bear
s who generally learn a moral
or safety
-related lesson in the course of each story. Since the 1962 debut of the first Berenstain Bears book, The Big Honey Hunt
, the series has grown to over 300 titles, which have sold approximately 260 million copies in 23 languages. The Berenstain Bears franchise
has also expanded well beyond the books, encompassing two television series and a wide variety of other products and licenses. Despite its enduring popularity, the series has been criticized for its perceived saccharine tone and formulaic
storytelling
.
, during which Stan worked for the Army as a medical illustrator
and Janice worked as a riveter, they were reunited and wed in 1946. While initially working as art teachers, the Berenstains pursued a joint career in cartooning and gradually found success working together on illustration
s, humorous sketches and cover art
for publications including The Saturday Review of Literature, Collier's, McCall's
, Good Housekeeping
, and The Saturday Evening Post
. In 1951, they published Berenstains' Baby Book, a humorous paperback aimed at adults and based on their experiences raising their infant son Leo in downtown Philadelphia. Nearly two dozen other books followed; described by Stan as "cartoon essay
s," the titles included Marital Blitz, How To Teach Your Children About Sex Without Making A Complete Fool of Yourself and Have A Baby, My Wife Just Had A Cigar!
In the early 1960s, the Berenstains sought to enter the field of writing for young children. For their first children's book, they chose to cast bears as the main characters, primarily because the animal held wide appeal and could be drawn easily. Stan also observed that female bears are "terrifyingly good mothers" while the males are "lousy fathers." (The Berenstains denied that their last name had anything to do with the decision.) In their 2002 memoir, they said that they knew from the start that their book would "have three characters: a bluff, overenthusiastic Papa Bear who wore bib overalls and a plaid shirt and...a wise Mama Bear who wore a blue dress with white polka dot
s...and a bright, lively little cub."
The Berenstains' first bear story, titled Freddy Bear's Spanking, arrived on the desk of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss
, who had found phenomenal success in 1957 with The Cat in the Hat
and was now editor of a Random House
series called "Beginner Books
". Geisel took on the manuscript
, but spent the next two years ruthlessly challenging the Berenstains to make improvements to the writing and structure and to connect with their characters on a deeper level. He asked questions such as "What kind of pipe tobacco
does Papa Bear smoke?" and urged them to analyze the relationship between Papa Bear and Small Bear, to which Stan responded, mystified, "Well, he's the father, and he's the son"; however, Jan attributed the inspiration for the characters' dynamic to the 1931 film The Champ
.
The book was finally published in 1962 under the title The Big Honey Hunt, with no plans to revisit the bears in a sequel. Geisel had told the Berenstains to feature a different animal in their next story, as "there are already too many bears... Sendak
's got some kind of bear. There's Yogi Bear
, the Three Bears
, Smokey Bear
, the Chicago Bears
... for your next book you should do something as different from bears as possible." They had started work on a new project featuring a penguin
when Geisel called and told them: "We're selling the hell out of the bear book." The second bear book, The Bike Lesson, appeared in 1964, featuring the names Stan and Jan Berenstain instead of Stanley and Janice; Geisel had changed the credit without consulting them. Geisel was also responsible for adding the name "Berenstain Bears" to the covers of succeeding books.
Over the next several decades, Stan and Jan collaborated on hundreds of books from their home studio outside Philadelphia. After developing a storyline together, one of them (usually Stan) would develop a first draft, which the other would then refine into a 1100-word manuscript. They also worked together on the illustrations. In 2002, the couple released a memoir of their career titled Down A Sunny Dirt Road.
Their sons Leo and Michael also entered the family business after making their own forays into children's publishing as an author and illustrator, respectively. In the 1990s, the men worked on the Berenstain Bears "Big Chapter Book" series (published under the names Stan and Jan Berenstain). Following Stan's passing away from lymphoma
in 2005, Michael has collaborated with his mother on writing and illustrating Berenstain Bears installments, while Leo has been involved with the business side of the franchise.
down a sunny dirt road deep in Bear Country," consists of Papa Bear, an oafish, bumbling carpenter
; wise Mama Bear, a housewife
and perfectionist
; and their children, Brother Bear (originally Small Bear), Sister Bear, and Honey Bear. Sister Bear was introduced in the 1974 book The Berenstain Bears' New Baby in response to requests from female readers. Honey Bear's imminent arrival was announced in early 2000 in The Birds, the Bees, and the Berenstain Bears, along with a reader contest to name the new bear; her birth was featured later that year in The Berenstain Bears and Baby Makes Five.
Stories about the bears generally follow a basic formula, so described by the Berenstains: "Papa sets out to instruct Small Bear in some aspect of the art of living and ends up badly the worse for wear, with Small Bear expressing his appreciation for the fine lesson Papa has taught him." In the words of The Washington Posts Paul Farhi, "The action usually starts when the kids face a problem. They turn to Papa, who offers a "solution" that only makes the problem--or the kids' fears about it--even worse. Enter Mama, who eventually sets everyone straight."
The litany of issues confronted by the Berenstain Bears over their fifty years of publication include bullying, messiness, poor sportsmanship
, visiting the dentist
, online safety, and childhood obesity
, among countless others. The Berenstains often drew inspiration from their own family experiences, which Stan credited for the series' continued relevance: "Kids still tell fibs and they mess up their rooms and they still throw tantrums in the supermarket...Nobody gets shot. No violence. There are problems, but they're the kind of typical family problems everyone goes through." The couple also claimed, in response to criticism of the characterization of Papa and Mama Bear, that those characters were heavily inspired by Stan and Jan Berenstain themselves.
In a 1989 editorial titled "Drown the Berenstain Bears", Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer
lamented the popularity of the books, writing that "it is not just the smugness and complacency of the stories that is so irritating," but the bears themselves, particularly "the post-feminist Papa Bear, the Alan Alda
of grizzlies, a wimp so passive and fumbling he makes Dagwood Bumstead
look like Batman
." He described Mama Bear as "the final flowering of the grade-school prissy, the one with perfect posture and impeccable handwriting...and now you have to visit her every night. The reason is, of course, that kids love them. My boy, 4, cannot get enough of these bears."
The New York Times' Janet Maslin
expressed similar sentiments in a 1988 review of the Berenstain Bears' video series, calling the bears "a thoroughly disagreeable bunch." Noting that "the nagging, scolding Mama Bear is a pillar of pettiness and conventionality" who "seems to care more about how the Bears' tree house looks than whether anyone is happy inside", she wrote, "some viewers may find it a genuine relief when the cubs demolish Mama's favorite lamp."
Upon the death of Stan Berenstain in 2005, the Washington Post published an "Appreciation" piece which many Post readers found surprisingly unappreciative in its tone. Written by Paul Farhi, who had previously rebuked the Berenstain Bears as the most popular example of a lamentable and misguided "self-help
" genre aimed at children, the 2005 piece revived his earlier sentiments:
Subsequent letters from readers condemned Farhi for expressing such harshness toward the recently deceased; one wrote, "In the name of fairness, please be sure to allow the Berenstain family the opportunity to someday retort in Farhi's obituary
." Readers also defended the books' "warmth" and their enduring popularity among young children.
s. As of 1983, the Berenstain Bears had been licensed to approximately 40 companies for more than 150 types of products, with projected annual sales of $50 million.
s on NBC
, airing as follows:
From 1985 through 1987, an animated series titled The Berenstain Bears
aired as part of CBS
' Saturday morning cartoon
block. The series was nominated in 1987 for a Daytime Emmy Award
for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming; it was also nominated that year for a Humanitas Prize
in the category of Non-Prime Time Children's Animated Show.
A second TV series, also called The Berenstain Bears
, debuted on PBS in 2003. The series was produced by the Canadian
company Nelvana
and consisted of 80 15-minute episodes adapted from the books. Due to Canadian laws requiring Nelvana to employ only Canadian writers and artists, the Berenstains' involvement in the program was limited; however, they sought to exert their influence on some details, according to Stan. "Our bears don't wear shoes, and Papa wouldn't wear his hat in the house...And we try to keep complete, total banality out of the stories." Practicalities of animation did force some minor costume changes from the books, such as eliminating Mama Bear's polka dots and other characters' plaids. The show's theme song is performed by Lee Ann Womack
.
In 2011, 20 episodes of the Nelvana series were dubbed with the Native American Lakota language
and began airing on public television in North
and South Dakota
under the title Mathó Waúnsila Thiwáhe (The Compassionate Bear Family). The translated series was a collaboration of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and the nonprofit Lakota Language Consortium, with Mike Berenstain and Nelvana waiving all licensing fees for the venture. The Berenstain Bears is the first animated series to be translated into a native American language in the United States.
in the Berenstains' home of Bucks County, Pennsylvania
. Organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
, and timed to coincide with the release of the Berenstains' memoir Down A Sunny Dirt Road, the exhibit provided a retrospective
of the couple's artwork, influences and techniques, as well as the evolution of their famous bears. The exhibit was subsequently hosted by the Rockwell Museum in 2003.
In 2005, the Lied Discovery Children's Museum
in Las Vegas, Nevada
, opened "Growing Up With the Berenstain Bears", an exhibition offering children the chance to experience life-size versions of Bear Country landmarks. The Youth Museum Exhibit Collaborative and the Berenstains themselves assisted in the exhibit's development. The exhibition visited eight other museums in the United States and Canada before returning to Lied Discovery Children's Museum in 2010.
The National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York
, is host to a permanent exhibit, "The Berenstain Bears — Down a Sunny Dirt Road." Opened in 2008, the original exhibition features interactive 3D playsets such as Mama Bear's Quilt Shop, Papa Bear's Woodworking Shop, and Dr. Bearson's Dentist Office.
, after having toured the country in an earlier version. Originally scheduled to run from June to September 4, the show was extended through October and subsequently moved to the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre for an open-ended run. The show was produced by Berenstain fan Matt Murphy, whose previous work included Memphis
and Altar Boyz
. Improper Magazine called it "a genuinely enjoyable and enriching experience for kids", while The New York Times said that "little theatergoers will enjoy the actors" but the story was "a bit too tidy and tame."
was announced in 2009 by Walden Media
and director Shawn Levy
, whose company 21 Laps would produce the film. The project was envisioned as a comedy with both live action
and computer-animated
elements, and an original storyline that would combine details from several Berenstain books. "I'd like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn't oblivious to the fact that they're bears," Levy said. Comparing it to the film Elf
, Levy said he thought the Berenstain Bears film would be "witty but never sarcastic." As of January 2011, the project was in the script phase with a tentative release planned for 2012.
America. Said PCA America President and CEO Jim Hmurovich: "This is a great example of a socially conscious and child focused business taking a stand on an issue that has great consequences for all of us. This helps us begin having a more honest conversation about how each of us has a role to prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation's children."
The Berenstains were approached by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop
, who asked them to write an anti-smoking
book for children. They declined, but the idea did lead to a 1988 book about peer pressure
, The Berenstain Bears and the Double Dare. In 1997, they published The Berenstain Bear Scouts and the Sinister Smoke Ring; Florida governor Lawton Chiles
purchased 600,000 copies of the book to distribute to children as part of his anti-smoking campaign.
manufacturer Lederle Laboratories licensed the Berenstain Bears for a promotional campaign encouraging children to get vaccinated. As part of the campaign, Lederle distributed Berenstain Bears stuffed animals and books to every pediatrician's office in the United States.
In the 1990s and 2000s, many Cedar Fair theme parks, including Cedar Point
, featured kids' play areas called "Berenstain Bear Country" that were themed to the franchise. The Berenstain Bears could also be found at the parks as costumed character
s.
A musical album titled The Berenstain Bears Save Christmas: The Musical! was released by Good Mood Records in 2006. Adapted from the 2003 book The Berenstain Bears Save Christmas, the album teamed the Berenstains with the father-son composing team of Elliot Lawrence
and Jamie Broza.
Other products that have featured the Berenstain Bears include clothing
, Happy Meal
s, cereal
, chocolate
, crackers
, greeting card
s, puzzles, embroidery kits
, and notepads.
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
created by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Stan and Jan Berenstain
Stan and Jan Berenstain were American writers and illustrators best known for creating the children's book series the Berenstain Bears....
. The books feature a family of anthropomorphic bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
s who generally learn a moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
or safety
Safety
Safety is the state of being "safe" , the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be...
-related lesson in the course of each story. Since the 1962 debut of the first Berenstain Bears book, The Big Honey Hunt
The Big Honey Hunt
The Big Honey Hunt was the first Berenstain Bears book written by Stan and Jan Berenstain in 1962. A 40th anniversary cover can be seen at the right with different illustrations.-Plot:...
, the series has grown to over 300 titles, which have sold approximately 260 million copies in 23 languages. The Berenstain Bears franchise
Media franchise
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
has also expanded well beyond the books, encompassing two television series and a wide variety of other products and licenses. Despite its enduring popularity, the series has been criticized for its perceived saccharine tone and formulaic
Formula fiction
In popular culture, formula fiction is literature in which the storylines and plots have been reused to the extent that the narratives are predictable. It is similar to genre fiction, which identifies a number of specific settings that are frequently reused...
storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
.
History
Stanley Berenstain and Janice Grant met in 1941 on their first day of drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, where they formed an immediate bond. After being separated during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, during which Stan worked for the Army as a medical illustrator
Medical illustrator
A medical illustrator is a professional artist who interprets and creates visual material to help record and disseminate medical, biological and related knowledge. Medical illustrators not only produce such material but can also function as consultants and administrators within the field of...
and Janice worked as a riveter, they were reunited and wed in 1946. While initially working as art teachers, the Berenstains pursued a joint career in cartooning and gradually found success working together on illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
s, humorous sketches and cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
for publications including The Saturday Review of Literature, Collier's, McCall's
McCall's
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...
, Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
, and The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
. In 1951, they published Berenstains' Baby Book, a humorous paperback aimed at adults and based on their experiences raising their infant son Leo in downtown Philadelphia. Nearly two dozen other books followed; described by Stan as "cartoon essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s," the titles included Marital Blitz, How To Teach Your Children About Sex Without Making A Complete Fool of Yourself and Have A Baby, My Wife Just Had A Cigar!
In the early 1960s, the Berenstains sought to enter the field of writing for young children. For their first children's book, they chose to cast bears as the main characters, primarily because the animal held wide appeal and could be drawn easily. Stan also observed that female bears are "terrifyingly good mothers" while the males are "lousy fathers." (The Berenstains denied that their last name had anything to do with the decision.) In their 2002 memoir, they said that they knew from the start that their book would "have three characters: a bluff, overenthusiastic Papa Bear who wore bib overalls and a plaid shirt and...a wise Mama Bear who wore a blue dress with white polka dot
Polka dot
Polka dot is a pattern consisting of an array of filled circles, generally equally sized and spaced relatively closely in relation to their diameters. Polka dots are most commonly seen on children's clothing, toys, and furniture, but they appear in a wide array of contexts...
s...and a bright, lively little cub."
The Berenstains' first bear story, titled Freddy Bear's Spanking, arrived on the desk of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
, who had found phenomenal success in 1957 with The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss and perhaps the most famous, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. He also carries a pale blue umbrella...
and was now editor of a Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
series called "Beginner Books
Beginner Books
Beginner Books is the Random House imprint for young children ages 4-8, co-founded by Phyllis Cerf with Ted Geisel, more often known as Dr. Seuss, and his wife Helen Palmer Geisel.Their first book was Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat...
". Geisel took on the manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
, but spent the next two years ruthlessly challenging the Berenstains to make improvements to the writing and structure and to connect with their characters on a deeper level. He asked questions such as "What kind of pipe tobacco
Pipe smoking
Pipe smoking is the practice of tasting or inhaling the smoke produced by burning a substance, most commonly tobacco, in a pipe. It is the oldest traditional form of smoking.-History:...
does Papa Bear smoke?" and urged them to analyze the relationship between Papa Bear and Small Bear, to which Stan responded, mystified, "Well, he's the father, and he's the son"; however, Jan attributed the inspiration for the characters' dynamic to the 1931 film The Champ
The Champ
The Champ is a 1931 American film written by Frances Marion, Leonard Praskins and Wanda Tuchock, and directed by King Vidor. The movie stars Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper , and tells the story of a washed up alcoholic boxer who tries to put his life together for the sake of his young son.The...
.
The book was finally published in 1962 under the title The Big Honey Hunt, with no plans to revisit the bears in a sequel. Geisel had told the Berenstains to feature a different animal in their next story, as "there are already too many bears... Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
's got some kind of bear. There's Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear is a fictional bear who appears in animated cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in The Huckleberry Hound Show. Yogi Bear was the first breakout character created by Hanna-Barbera, and was eventually more popular than...
, the Three Bears
The Three Bears
"The Story of the Three Bears" is a fairy tale first recorded in narrative form by British author and poet Robert Southey, and first published anonymously in a volume of his writings in 1837...
, Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear is a mascot of the United States Forest Service created to educate the public about the dangers of forest fires. An advertising campaign featuring Smokey was created in 1944 with the slogan, "Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires". Smokey Bear's later slogan,...
, the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
... for your next book you should do something as different from bears as possible." They had started work on a new project featuring a penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
when Geisel called and told them: "We're selling the hell out of the bear book." The second bear book, The Bike Lesson, appeared in 1964, featuring the names Stan and Jan Berenstain instead of Stanley and Janice; Geisel had changed the credit without consulting them. Geisel was also responsible for adding the name "Berenstain Bears" to the covers of succeeding books.
Over the next several decades, Stan and Jan collaborated on hundreds of books from their home studio outside Philadelphia. After developing a storyline together, one of them (usually Stan) would develop a first draft, which the other would then refine into a 1100-word manuscript. They also worked together on the illustrations. In 2002, the couple released a memoir of their career titled Down A Sunny Dirt Road.
Their sons Leo and Michael also entered the family business after making their own forays into children's publishing as an author and illustrator, respectively. In the 1990s, the men worked on the Berenstain Bears "Big Chapter Book" series (published under the names Stan and Jan Berenstain). Following Stan's passing away from lymphoma
Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...
in 2005, Michael has collaborated with his mother on writing and illustrating Berenstain Bears installments, while Leo has been involved with the business side of the franchise.
Characters and themes
The Berenstain Bears, who reside "in a big treehouseTree house
Tree houses, treehouses, or tree forts, are platforms or buildings constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level...
down a sunny dirt road deep in Bear Country," consists of Papa Bear, an oafish, bumbling carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
; wise Mama Bear, a housewife
Housewife
Housewife is a term used to describe a married woman with household responsibilities who is not employed outside the home. Merriam Webster describes a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household...
and perfectionist
Perfectionism (psychology)
Perfectionism, in psychology, is a belief that a state of completeness and flawlessness can and should be attained. In its pathological form, perfectionism is a belief that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable...
; and their children, Brother Bear (originally Small Bear), Sister Bear, and Honey Bear. Sister Bear was introduced in the 1974 book The Berenstain Bears' New Baby in response to requests from female readers. Honey Bear's imminent arrival was announced in early 2000 in The Birds, the Bees, and the Berenstain Bears, along with a reader contest to name the new bear; her birth was featured later that year in The Berenstain Bears and Baby Makes Five.
Stories about the bears generally follow a basic formula, so described by the Berenstains: "Papa sets out to instruct Small Bear in some aspect of the art of living and ends up badly the worse for wear, with Small Bear expressing his appreciation for the fine lesson Papa has taught him." In the words of The Washington Posts Paul Farhi, "The action usually starts when the kids face a problem. They turn to Papa, who offers a "solution" that only makes the problem--or the kids' fears about it--even worse. Enter Mama, who eventually sets everyone straight."
The litany of issues confronted by the Berenstain Bears over their fifty years of publication include bullying, messiness, poor sportsmanship
Sportsmanship
Sportsmanship is an aspiration or ethos that a sport or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one's competitors...
, visiting the dentist
Dentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
, online safety, and childhood obesity
Childhood obesity
Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of obesity in children and its many adverse health effects...
, among countless others. The Berenstains often drew inspiration from their own family experiences, which Stan credited for the series' continued relevance: "Kids still tell fibs and they mess up their rooms and they still throw tantrums in the supermarket...Nobody gets shot. No violence. There are problems, but they're the kind of typical family problems everyone goes through." The couple also claimed, in response to criticism of the characterization of Papa and Mama Bear, that those characters were heavily inspired by Stan and Jan Berenstain themselves.
Criticism
The Berenstain Bears series has been called "syrupy", "unsatisfying", "infuriatingly formulaic", "hokey", "abominable", and "little more than stern lectures dressed up as children's stories."In a 1989 editorial titled "Drown the Berenstain Bears", Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer
Charles Krauthammer
Charles Krauthammer, MD is an American Pulitzer Prize–winning syndicated columnist, political commentator, and physician. His weekly column appears in The Washington Post and is syndicated to more than 275 newspapers and media outlets. He is a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and The New...
lamented the popularity of the books, writing that "it is not just the smugness and complacency of the stories that is so irritating," but the bears themselves, particularly "the post-feminist Papa Bear, the Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
of grizzlies, a wimp so passive and fumbling he makes Dagwood Bumstead
Dagwood Bumstead
Dagwood Bumstead is a main character in comic artist Chic Young's long-running comic strip Blondie. He first appeared sometime prior to 17 February 1933....
look like Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
." He described Mama Bear as "the final flowering of the grade-school prissy, the one with perfect posture and impeccable handwriting...and now you have to visit her every night. The reason is, of course, that kids love them. My boy, 4, cannot get enough of these bears."
The New York Times' Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
expressed similar sentiments in a 1988 review of the Berenstain Bears' video series, calling the bears "a thoroughly disagreeable bunch." Noting that "the nagging, scolding Mama Bear is a pillar of pettiness and conventionality" who "seems to care more about how the Bears' tree house looks than whether anyone is happy inside", she wrote, "some viewers may find it a genuine relief when the cubs demolish Mama's favorite lamp."
Upon the death of Stan Berenstain in 2005, the Washington Post published an "Appreciation" piece which many Post readers found surprisingly unappreciative in its tone. Written by Paul Farhi, who had previously rebuked the Berenstain Bears as the most popular example of a lamentable and misguided "self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
" genre aimed at children, the 2005 piece revived his earlier sentiments:
The larger questions about the popularity of the Berenstain Bears are more troubling: Is this what we really want from children's books in the first place, a world filled with scares and neuroses and problems to be toughed out and solved? And if it is, aren't the Berenstain Bears simply teaching to the test, providing a lesson to be spit back, rather than one lived and understood and embraced?
Where is the warmth, the spirit of discovery and imagination in Bear Country? Stan Berenstain taught a million lessons to children, but subtlety and plain old joy weren't among them.
Subsequent letters from readers condemned Farhi for expressing such harshness toward the recently deceased; one wrote, "In the name of fairness, please be sure to allow the Berenstain family the opportunity to someday retort in Farhi's obituary
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...
." Readers also defended the books' "warmth" and their enduring popularity among young children.
Franchise
Since the Berenstain Bears' creation, the characters have been widely licensed for a broad array of products. The franchise exploded in size in the 1980s, when King Features began aggressively promoting the Bears to marketers amidst a surge in popularity following a series of animated television specialTelevision special
A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
s. As of 1983, the Berenstain Bears had been licensed to approximately 40 companies for more than 150 types of products, with projected annual sales of $50 million.
Television
The Berenstain Bears first appeared on television in five animated specialSpecial
Special or specials may refer to:In music:* "Special" * "Special" * "Special" * The Specials, a British bandIn film and television:...
s on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, airing as follows:
- The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree (December 3, 1979)
- The Berenstain Bears Meet Bigpaw (November 20, 1980)
- The Berenstain Bears and the Real Easter Egg (also called Easter Surprise) (April 14, 1981)
- The Berenstain Bears' Valentine Special (also called The Berenstain Bears' Comic Valentine) (February 13, 1982)
- The Berenstain Bears' Littlest Leaguer (also called The Berenstain Bears Play Ball) (May 6, 1983)
From 1985 through 1987, an animated series titled The Berenstain Bears
The Berenstain Bears (1985 TV series)
The Berenstain Bears is an Australian-American co-produced animated television series based on Stan and Jan Berenstain's Berenstain Bears children's book series, produced by Hanna-Barbera and Southern Star Productions....
aired as part of CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
' Saturday morning cartoon
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
block. The series was nominated in 1987 for a Daytime Emmy Award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming; it was also nominated that year for a Humanitas Prize
Humanitas Prize
The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious...
in the category of Non-Prime Time Children's Animated Show.
A second TV series, also called The Berenstain Bears
The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series)
The Berenstain Bears is a 2003 animated television series based on Stan and Jan Berenstain's children's book series of the same name. Although most of the earlier episodes in the series were based on the book series, later episodes were not based on any of the books.-Sypnosis:The series follows...
, debuted on PBS in 2003. The series was produced by the Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
company Nelvana
Nelvana
Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971 known for its work in children's animation. It was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s...
and consisted of 80 15-minute episodes adapted from the books. Due to Canadian laws requiring Nelvana to employ only Canadian writers and artists, the Berenstains' involvement in the program was limited; however, they sought to exert their influence on some details, according to Stan. "Our bears don't wear shoes, and Papa wouldn't wear his hat in the house...And we try to keep complete, total banality out of the stories." Practicalities of animation did force some minor costume changes from the books, such as eliminating Mama Bear's polka dots and other characters' plaids. The show's theme song is performed by Lee Ann Womack
Lee Ann Womack
Lee Ann Womack is an American country music singer and songwriter, who is best known for her old fashioned-styled country music songs that often discuss subjects such as cheating and lost love....
.
In 2011, 20 episodes of the Nelvana series were dubbed with the Native American Lakota language
Lakota language
Lakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages , and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux...
and began airing on public television in North
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
and South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
under the title Mathó Waúnsila Thiwáhe (The Compassionate Bear Family). The translated series was a collaboration of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and the nonprofit Lakota Language Consortium, with Mike Berenstain and Nelvana waiving all licensing fees for the venture. The Berenstain Bears is the first animated series to be translated into a native American language in the United States.
Software
Several computer games and other software adaptations of the Berenstain Bears books have been released, including the following:- 1993: The Berenstain Bears: Learning At Home, Volume 1, from Compton's New Media. Noted for requiring "a whopping 20 megabytes of hard-disk space."
- 1994: Berenstain Bears Learn About Letters, from Softprime Inc. Reviewed by the New York Times as "mediocre."
- 1995: The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight, from Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
/BrøderbundBrøderbundBrøderbund Software, Inc. was an American maker of computer games, educational software and The Print Shop productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, but moved to San Rafael,...
as part of the Living Books seriesLiving Books seriesThe Living Books series is a series of interactive animated multimedia children's books, first produced by Brøderbund and then spun off into a jointly-owned subsidiary, which were distributed on CD-ROM for Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows...
. An animated point-and-clickPoint-and-clickPoint-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
adaptation of the book of the same name, featuring a brief video interview with the Berenstains. The Milwaukee Journal said, "The quality of the disc's illustrations and the bluegrass banjo soundtrack by Tony FurtadoTony FurtadoTony Furtado is an American banjo player and slide guitar, and singer/songwriter.player of Portuguese and Italian heritage who was born in Oakland, California...
are first-rate." Living Books later released a second Berenstain Bears installment, The Berenstain Bears in the Dark.
- 2010: The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule and others, from Oceanhouse Media. Similar to the Living Books, these "omBook" apps for the iPadIPadThe iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
and iPhoneIPhoneThe iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
combine the books' original illustrations with optional narration. The apps have been positively received and reviewed.
Museum exhibits
In late 2002, an exhibit titled "The Berenstain Bears Celebrate: The Art of Stan and Jan Berenstain" opened at the James A. Michener Art MuseumJames A. Michener Art Museum
The James A. Michener Art Museum is a private, non-profit museum in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania founded in 1988 and named for the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer James A. Michener, a Doylestown resident...
in the Berenstains' home of Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- Industry and commerce :The boroughs of Bristol and Morrisville were prominent industrial centers along the Northeast Corridor during World War II. Suburban development accelerated in Lower Bucks in the 1950s with the opening of Levittown, Pennsylvania, the second such "Levittown" designed by...
. Organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum
Norman Rockwell Museum
The Norman Rockwell Museum is home to the world's largest collection of original Rockwell art.-History:Founded in 1969, the museum is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where Rockwell lived the last 25 years of his life. The museum has been at its current location since 1993. The museum...
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
, and timed to coincide with the release of the Berenstains' memoir Down A Sunny Dirt Road, the exhibit provided a retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective generally means to take a look back at events that already have taken place. For example, the term is used in medicine, describing a look back at a patient's medical history or lifestyle.-Music:...
of the couple's artwork, influences and techniques, as well as the evolution of their famous bears. The exhibit was subsequently hosted by the Rockwell Museum in 2003.
In 2005, the Lied Discovery Children's Museum
Lied Discovery Children's Museum
The Lied Discovery Children's Museum is a facility located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The museum is located across Las Vegas Boulevard from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum...
in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, opened "Growing Up With the Berenstain Bears", an exhibition offering children the chance to experience life-size versions of Bear Country landmarks. The Youth Museum Exhibit Collaborative and the Berenstains themselves assisted in the exhibit's development. The exhibition visited eight other museums in the United States and Canada before returning to Lied Discovery Children's Museum in 2010.
The National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, is host to a permanent exhibit, "The Berenstain Bears — Down a Sunny Dirt Road." Opened in 2008, the original exhibition features interactive 3D playsets such as Mama Bear's Quilt Shop, Papa Bear's Woodworking Shop, and Dr. Bearson's Dentist Office.
Stage show
The off-Broadway musical The Berenstain Bears LIVE! in Family Matters, the Musical debuted in June 2011 at MMAC (Manhattan Movie and Arts Center) in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, after having toured the country in an earlier version. Originally scheduled to run from June to September 4, the show was extended through October and subsequently moved to the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre for an open-ended run. The show was produced by Berenstain fan Matt Murphy, whose previous work included Memphis
Memphis (Musical)
Memphis is a musical by David Bryan and Joe DiPietro . It is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s...
and Altar Boyz
Altar Boyz
Altar Boyz is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker and book by Kevin Del Aguila . Centering on a fictitious Christian boy band from Ohio, the show satirizes, among other things, the phenomenon of boy bands and the popularity of Christian-themed music in...
. Improper Magazine called it "a genuinely enjoyable and enriching experience for kids", while The New York Times said that "little theatergoers will enjoy the actors" but the story was "a bit too tidy and tame."
Feature film
A planned Berenstain Bears feature film adaptationFilm adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
was announced in 2009 by Walden Media
Walden Media
Walden Media is a children's film production and publishing company best known as the producers of The Chronicles of Narnia series. Its films are based on notable classic or award-winning children's literature, compelling biographies or historical events, documentaries and some original...
and director Shawn Levy
Shawn Levy
Shawn Adam Levy is a Canadian-American actor, director and producer who directed the comedy films Big Fat Liar, Just Married, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther, Night at the Museum, Date Night, and the sci-fi movie Real Steel...
, whose company 21 Laps would produce the film. The project was envisioned as a comedy with both live action
Live action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
and computer-animated
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
elements, and an original storyline that would combine details from several Berenstain books. "I'd like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn't oblivious to the fact that they're bears," Levy said. Comparing it to the film Elf
Elf (film)
Elf is a 2003 comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, written by David Berenbaum and starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Zooey Deschanel. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 and grossed over $220,400,000 worldwide.-Plot:A baby crawls into Santa Claus' sack while he is...
, Levy said he thought the Berenstain Bears film would be "witty but never sarcastic." As of January 2011, the project was in the script phase with a tentative release planned for 2012.
Social issues
In 2007, the Berenstain Bears became the "spokesbears" for Prevent Child AbuseChild abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
America. Said PCA America President and CEO Jim Hmurovich: "This is a great example of a socially conscious and child focused business taking a stand on an issue that has great consequences for all of us. This helps us begin having a more honest conversation about how each of us has a role to prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation's children."
The Berenstains were approached by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop
C. Everett Koop
Charles Everett Koop, MD is an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as thirteenth Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989.-Early years:Koop was born...
, who asked them to write an anti-smoking
Smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them...
book for children. They declined, but the idea did lead to a 1988 book about peer pressure
Peer pressure
Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is "formally" a member , or a social clique...
, The Berenstain Bears and the Double Dare. In 1997, they published The Berenstain Bear Scouts and the Sinister Smoke Ring; Florida governor Lawton Chiles
Lawton Chiles
Lawton Mainor Chiles, Jr. was an American politician from the US state of Florida. In a career spanning four decades, Chiles, a Democrat who never lost an election, served in the Florida House of Representatives , the Florida State Senate , the United States Senate , and as the 41st Governor of...
purchased 600,000 copies of the book to distribute to children as part of his anti-smoking campaign.
Other products
In the 1980s, the prominent vaccineVaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
manufacturer Lederle Laboratories licensed the Berenstain Bears for a promotional campaign encouraging children to get vaccinated. As part of the campaign, Lederle distributed Berenstain Bears stuffed animals and books to every pediatrician's office in the United States.
In the 1990s and 2000s, many Cedar Fair theme parks, including Cedar Point
Cedar Point
Cedar Point is a 364 acre amusement park located in Sandusky, Ohio, United States on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. Cedar Point is the only amusement park with four roller coasters that are taller than...
, featured kids' play areas called "Berenstain Bear Country" that were themed to the franchise. The Berenstain Bears could also be found at the parks as costumed character
Costumed character
right|200px|thumb|Millie, once costumed character mascot of the [[Brampton, Ontario|City of Brampton]] in [[Ontario]], [[Canada]], is now the [[Brampton Arts Council]]'s representative.A costumed character wears a costume that covers the performer's face...
s.
A musical album titled The Berenstain Bears Save Christmas: The Musical! was released by Good Mood Records in 2006. Adapted from the 2003 book The Berenstain Bears Save Christmas, the album teamed the Berenstains with the father-son composing team of Elliot Lawrence
Elliot Lawrence
Elliot Lawrence is an American jazz pianist and bandleader.Son of the broadcaster Stan Lee Broza, Lawrence led his first dance band at age 20, but he played swing at the time its heyday was coming to a close. He recorded copiously as a bandleader for Columbia, Decca, King, Fantasy, Vik, and Sesac...
and Jamie Broza.
Other products that have featured the Berenstain Bears include clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
, Happy Meal
Happy Meal
A "Happy Meal" is a meal specifically marketed at children, sold at the fast-food chain McDonald's since June 1979. A toy is typically included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a small box or paper bag with the McDonald's logo....
s, cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
, chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
, crackers
Cracker (food)
A cracker is a baked good commonly made from grain flour dough and typically made in quantity in various hand-sized or smaller shapes. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, and/or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before baking...
, greeting card
Greeting card
A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling. Greeting cards,...
s, puzzles, embroidery kits
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
, and notepads.