“When making friends, the cub who's wise is the cub who learns to compromise.”
—Opening quote for The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Friends
The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Friends is a book in the Berenstain Bears First Time Books series by Stan and Jan Berenstain. It was first published in 1986.
It was adapted into an episode of the same name for the 1985 TV series The Berenstain Bears.
Summary[]
Sister wants to play with Brother, but he has plans to play with Cousin Freddy and his friends. Luckily for her, a new girl cub named Lizzy Bruin moves into an empty treehouse with her parents. The two get along at first, but when they start being bossy towards each other, the chance of a new friendship between them is in jeopardy.
Plot[]
One day, Sister takes her dolls out on the front lawn and tells Brother that they were going to play tea party. Brother objects, stating he's too old for that and would be subject to endless ridicule from Cousin Freddy and his friends. He then rides off on his skateboard to go meet up with Cousin Freddy, leaving Sister alone. Mama and Papa watch as Sister picks up a jump rope and jumps with a frog and a butterfly. Suddenly, Mama notices a moving truck out of the corner of her eye, with Sister watching as a car followed the truck.
With her jump rope, Sister skips over to the moving truck to find a girl cub and her parents. The girl, who introduces herself as Lizzy Bruin and also her parents, takes Sister's jump rope and does the "Red Hot Pepper." It then turns into the girls seeing who could jump one thousand times, but Lizzy declines and races to the nearby playground with Sister following her. There, the girls climbed the jungle gym, rode the seesaw, pushed each other on the swings, played tag, rolled down the grass, and picked flowers for their mothers.
Later, Sister tells Mama about her new friend Lizzy, to which she adds that she is bossy and braggy. Lizzy called Sister the next morning and invites her over to play school, with Sister bringing many of her dolls. At the Bruins' house, Lizzy and Sister both head into the garage and Lizzy sets it up like a classroom. While Sister placed her dolls on the boxes, she is interrupted as Lizzy tapped on the desk with a pointer. As Lizzy drew the letter "A" on a small chalkboard, Sister protested that she knew her ABC's and said that she's always the teacher when she plays school. Lizzy orders Sister to sit down and she retaliates by taking the pointer out of Lizzy's hand.
Just after, the girls wrestle each other for the pointer, which ends up breaking in two. Angered, Sister gathers all of her dolls and leaves while telling Lizzy she'll never play with her again. Lizzy taunts; "Sister's mad, and I'm glad!" with Sister responding; "Lizzy Lizzy in a tizzy!" Back at home, Sister tells Mama everything that happened and how bossy and braggy Lizzy is. Mama understands that Sister can have fun playing by herself, but adds that she can't do some things on her own, such as swinging, riding a seesaw, and playing games that require two or more people. She also adds that Sister can also be braggy and bossy sometimes, but there's one thing she can do better by herself: Being lonesome.
Lizzy knocks on the door and hands Sister her teddy, and offers her the turn of school teacher. Sister suggests that she and Lizzy should take turns being the teacher, which Lizzy gladly agrees to. Happily, Sister gathers all of her stuffed animals and raced out of the front door to Lizzy's garage, with Lizzy tailing after her.
Cast:[]
- Papa Bear
- Mama Bear
- Brother Bear
- Sister Bear
- Lizzy Bruin (debut)
- Fred Bear (mentioned)
- Mr. Bruin
- Mrs. Bruin
Gallery:[]
Trivia[]
- This marks the first appearance of Lizzy Bruin.
- While Brother and Sister do play together, they both have different ideas on how they spend their time.