Stan Berenstain

It's not even a party. It's just a school day.

The best part: On the second page, inside Sister Bear's backpack, is a Valentine that says "My", a symbol of a heart, then a picture of a pair of pants, and then "4 You." Is that "My heart pants for you?" Who says that? That's just bizarre. "My heart shorts for you?" "...jeans for you?" None of those make any sense. It's next to one that's got a picture of a bee and then says "mine" underneath, obviously "Be mine." That's pretty common. Maybe just "My pants for you?" A bit direct for grade school, don't you think?

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Valentines are cool?

What's an im-ag-in-a-shun?

"Go use your imagination." "How do we do that?" Like they've never imagined anything in their lives. It's kind of bland. It just seems like they're copying this older story instead of being very imaginative. It's like the writer was being lazy.

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Using your imagination is awesome!

Repetitive, overly simplistic pointless robbery book.

There's no real point. Pretty much everything is interchangeable. The characters are interchangeable. The plot points could have happened in any order.

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None.

Basically half a book about political responsibility.

Huh? I'm so confused. It's like they didn't even care enough to finish the book.

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Don't run for mayor?

Unnecessary explicit preposition instruction.

Well, that was a complete lack of a story. This is from a time when people thought that you had to explicitly teach people these things. You don't!

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None.

Mama flips out.

Maybe they could have a more natural consequence, like not being able to find what they're looking for, or falling over things that have been left in the middle of the floor. That happens too, and that could be a realistic consequence instead of Mama making threats because she's being taking advantage of as a parent.

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Keep your room clean.

Mixture of accurate information and inaccurate.

The doctor prescribes Papa some medicine for his cold, which is not a thing that exists. There is no medicine that gets prescribed for colds. They're viruses, not bacteria. But, hey.

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Don't be afraid of doctors.

Frighteningly boring.

It's a good message, just not a very interesting story.

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The dark isn't scary, but it's okay to be afraid of it anyway.

Babysitters are a last resort, but not scary.

I'm not really sure what the message is. It seems to have a message, but then loses it.

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Don't be afraid of babysitters?

Tedious lift-the-flap book.

It's just supposed to be a lift-the-flap book, but I think by the time the kids are old enough to lift the flaps without just tearing them to shreds, they're kind of beyond this. Maybe most kids aren't as destructive as mine was.

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Baby animals are born in the spring.