“Bear Country is safe when every small cub there learns some special lessons from Ma and Papa Bear.”
—Opening quote for The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers.
The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers is a book in The Berenstain Bears series that was first published on August 12, 1985.
Summary[]
Sister likes talking to strangers, until Brother tells her to stop doing so. However, Papa gives Sister the wrong idea about not talking to strangers following a bedtime story he reads to her. Mama reminds her that while Papa was right about what he said, it doesn't mean that all strangers are bad. With Mama's advice, Sister catches Brother getting ready to enter a stranger's vehicle and teaches him what Mama said about strangers.
Plot[]
While Brother and Sister were out walking in the village green, Sister greeted every bear and forest animal that they pass by. Brother eventually gets fed up with it and tells Sister to stop, but she doesn't see any harm in saying hello to strangers, but asked Papa about it when she and Brother got home. Papa tells Sister that talking to, take presents, or go anywhere with strangers is dangerous. He then shows Sister several news articles relating to strangers. In bed that night, Sister has Papa read her a bedtime story called Silly Goose and Wily Fox, in which Silly Goose was lured into Wily Fox's lair where he ate her alive, leaving nothing but feathers behind. Sister had trouble sleeping that night as the titles of the news articles Papa read to her swarmed her mind, with one reading "SILLY GOOSE MISSING! WILY FOX QUESTIONED!".
The next morning, Sister woke up to a not-so-friendly day. At breakfast, Brother asks Sister to ride their bikes on the village green, but Sister declines. He asks for soccer, and Sister declines that as well. Brother manages to convince Sister to tag along with him when he asks to play frisbee. While Mama went to Farmer Ben's to get some apples, Sister imagined that the bustling village green is scary, with everything looking "mean and scary" to her. Later, when Mama came to pick up the cubs, she tapped Sister's shoulder, scaring her.
At the treehouse, as Mama and Sister were cutting apples, Mama tells her that Papa was right in not talking to strangers or getting presents and rides from them, but she adds that not every stranger is bad and adds the old saying: "There'll always be a couple of bad apples in every barrel." Sister shows Mama a strange looking apple and Mama cuts it open. Mama picks up another apple and shows Sister the worm hidden inside. Brother enters the kitchen and invites Sister to go fly his pusher plane with him, to which she agrees to.
At a clearing, Brother flies his pusher plane while Sister was picking wildflowers. Brother sees a stranger pulling up with a radio-controlled model airplane and goes to talk to the stranger. Concerned, Sister drops her wildflowers and runs over to them. The stranger tells Brother that he's going to fly the plane while following it in his car and asks him to come along, which Brother agrees to. Sister grabs Brother's arm and runs home shouting "Brother talked to a stranger!". Back at the treehouse, Papa tells Brother that they have rules about strangers, with Brother calling Sister a "tattletale". Mama says that the stranger wasn't a "bad apple", and Sister tells him that while most strangers are friendly, they have to be careful just in case.
As the family eats Mama's applesauce, Brother and Sister thought about what they learned that day. The book then concludes with Brother and Sister's Rules for Cubs.
Publication history[]
- August 12, 1985, Random House (Paperback)