“It's vacation time. Hooray! Hooray! Let's spend it outdoors. Let's get away!”
—Opening quote
The Berenstain Bears Go to Camp is a book in the Berenstain Bears series. It was first published on March 12, 1982.
This book later received an adaptation for the 2003 series The Berenstain Bears.
Summary[]
School is out for the summer and Brother and Sister both look forward to enjoying it. However, while they sit around doing nothing, Sister tells Mama that there's nothing to do. She then shows the cubs a brochure for Grizzly Bob's Day Camp. At first, the cubs go back to doing their things, but soon ask Mama if they could go to camp.
Plot[]
It's the last day of Bear Country School, and the cubs all race to the school bus to prepare for the ride home. Brother and Sister both say goodbye to Teacher Jane as they get on the bus. A day later, Mama notices the cubs sitting around doing nothing, and Sister tells her there's nothing to do. Mama has the cubs look at a brochure for Grizzly Bob's Day Camp, and the thought of having an overnight sleep-out sounded a little scary to Sister.
The cubs took some time to think about going to camp, and after picking some wildflowers, chasing butterflies, and turning over a few rocks, they ask Mama if they could try Grizzly Bob's summer camp to see if they like it. Mama agrees. A couple of mornings later, the cubs, Mama, and Papa watch as Grizzly Bob pulls toward the Bear family treehouse. Grizzly Bob himself gets out to introduce himself to Mama and Papa as the cubs board the bus. Much later, the cubs on Grizzly Bob's bus arrive at the camp and they excitedly get out to see the surroundings, as the camp itself was near a lake.
Grizzly Bob makes then hands out name tags for the cubs, and advises them to get to know each other now that they're campmates. He then takes the cubs on a tour around the camp, showing them various buildings such as Grizzly Bob's office and the Rec Hall. At the picnic area, Sister burns her hot dog and trades it with Cousin Fred, who himself admits he likes burnt hot dogs.
After lunch, the cubs and Bob go for a hike up Spook Hill where they see Skull Rock, the place they are having their sleep-out on the last day of camp. Back at the treehouse, the cubs were thinking about Skull Rock and the end-of-camp sleepout. That night in bed, Sister became worried.
At camp the next day, Brother has his swimming test and rode in the canoe. Sister played dodgeball with a few other cubs, but got hit pretty hard. On the third day, Sister made a picture frame and received a star. Brother injured his knee participating in a wheelbarrow race. The cubs enjoy themselves at day camp and forget about the sleepout on Skull Rock, which pops back into Sister's mind one night. On the second-to-last day of camp, Grizzly Bob and the cubs go for another hike up Spook Hill to Skull Rock. When they got there, the sun started going down, Grizzly Bob sets up a campfire, and the cubs gather around it as he changed into a costume and told the cubs stories about the Great Grizzly as Big as a Mountain, the Soaring Eagle Who Filled the Sky, and the Mighty Salmon Whose Colors Made the Rainbow.
After the cubs eat honey bread and drink cocoa, they all got into their sleeping bags and went to sleep, including Sister. At Field Day the next day, Brother and Sister both perform well in the activities and contests. Brother came in second in a dash, and Sister won medals for her dead-bear's float and beat belt. Brother hugs his trophy and tells Mama and Papa that he had a great time at camp. Sister tells them that school "will be like a vacation" when they leave Grizzly Bob's Day Camp.
Characters:[]
Differences from the TV Series:[]
- The book began with Brother, Sister and their other classmates leaving school and going home on the last day of school, but the TV episode began with Brother and Sister at sitting outside wondering what they can do during the summer.
- In the book, the bear who ran the camp was named Ted, but in the TV episode, he was named Grizzly Bob.
- Lizzy does not appear in the book like she did in the TV episode due to the book being published before, "The Trouble with Friends." (The book she was introduced in.)
- In the book, Sister discovered the outdoor camping trip to Skull Rock on the camp's advertisement paper, but in the TV episode, she discovered they were going on the camping trip to Skull Rock when Grizzly Bob told them they were doing so when they hiked to Spook Hill.
- The TV episode also centered more on Sister's fear of going on the camping trip, and featured a scene with her and Lizzy going camping outside at home to test for the real Skull Rock camping trip which made Sister more brave, while the book that didn't happen.
- In the book, Grizzly Bob wore a Native American suit when they were camping at Skull Rock, while in the TV episode he didn't.
- The book ended with the final day of camp with the sports festival and Sister happy over overcoming her fear of camping outside and was ready to face challenges in the upcoming school year, while the episode ended with the characters going to sleep while camping at Skull Rock.