Tag: rare books

Episode 521 – The BEAR Essentials!

Stan and Jan Berenstain wrote a parenting guide, and Becca and I have some questions.

This week, we crack open THE BEAR ESSENTIALS: parenting advice, unexpectedly advanced vocabulary, and a VERY thorough index. We explore the Berenstains’ earlier cartoons for adults, consider the financial wisdom of Barbie and Beanie Baby college funds, and take an entirely reasonable detour into Psalty the Singing Songbook.

But first, Becca has a new clue in our ongoing mystery of those unusual Berenstain Bears hardcovers: matching Tuesday Morning stickers. We follow the discount-store trail and try to piece together how these books ended up on the shelves.

Have one of these mystery editions sitting around your house? Let us know in the comments!

There’s always more Bear Country.

Episode 520 – The Berenstain Bears and BECCA IS CO-HOST!

After more than 11 years of Deep in Bear Country, I officially have a co-host! Becca Peter joins me and she’s brought a Berenstain Bears mystery that has even Mike Berenstain stumped.

Becca has uncovered some unusual hardcover editions featuring messages from Stan and Jan, unfiltered parenting advice, maybe a connection to the Berenstains’ parenting guide(?), and Ronald Reagan’s death. We’re gonna get into these!

We also talk about how Becca found the show, our plans to revisit classic First Time Books, and why vintage coloring books might provide us with an alarming amount of material.

Have one of these mysterious editions? Know where they came from? Have something you’d like us to cover? Write to us at berenstainbearcast@gmail.com!

Episode 481 – Tax-Wise: A Pictorial Romp Through the Tax Form by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Before they created the beloved Berenstain Bears, Stan and Jan Berenstain were drawing… THIS?! Tax-Wise: A Pictorial Romp Through the Tax Form (1952) is a bizarre, hyper-specific IRS humor book filled with visual gags, surreal scenarios, and more gendered 1950s weirdness than you can shake a W-2 at. In this episode, I (Phil Gonzales) walk you through the entire book — panel by panel — and try to make sense of its wild humor, historical context, and what it tells us about the Berenstains before they became family-friendly legends.

This was a personal request from Mike Berenstain himself, and honestly, it’s the perfect unhinged way to celebrate tax season.