The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute

The Berenstain Bears

by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain

This classic Berenstain Bears story is a perfect way to teach children about caring for the planet!

Come for a visit in Bear Country with this classic First Time Book® from Stan and Jan Berenstain. Brother is doing a report about endangered species, so he and Sister visit the museum to talk to Professor Actual Factual about what they can do to help save the environment. Includes over 50 bonus stickers!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Animals, Juvenile, Environment, Young Adult

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Stan and Jan Berenstain (often called The Berenstains) were American writers and illustrators best known for creating the children's book series the Berenstain Bears. Their son Mike Berenstain joined them as a creative team in the late 1980s.

Reviews

[Jordan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Somehow I missed this Berenstain Bears book as a kid. Glad I did. Absolutely standard-issue, platitudinous environmentalist message piece from the pre-Climate Change hysteria heyday (copyrighted 1991) when the main worry was pollution and the panacea recycling.

Papa Bear here is a dunce whom the kids and my least favorite Berenstain Bears character, the insufferable Professor Actual-Factual, have to educate and shame/intimidate into compliance with their plans to save the planet. The story ends with Papa having a nightmare about angry trees and his participation in a protest.

Not that I don’t think littering is bad. Stewardship of the environment and personal responsibility for your garbage are things I care a lot about. But the message here seems to be: believe, as your intellectual betters wish you to; cow the infidels; and change things/demonstrate your own righteousness by waving placards. The cultural results of this kind of messaging, 27 years on, seem manifest.

Sarah says this book smacks of checklist compliance with state standards on a topic in order to sell books on the educational market. Makes sense. This is the most disappointingly unoriginal Berenstain Bears book by the original authors and illustrators I’ve come across.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reasons I don't like this book:
1. Parents/adults are the problem and the teachers need to teach the kids this;
2. The bully comes up with the idea to "lean" on anybody who doesn't cooperate with the no pollution plan; and
3. Papa Bear's bad dream and illustrations of it weren't necessary or appropriate for the storyline or the intended audience of this book.

[Jessica]

I love the BB with all my heart and like to read one every morning while I eat breakfast. This one came out in the 90s. Bear country is in danger from pollution, but the science teacher helps make every thing better.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover of this book appears that it is one of the 'easier' reading books and even has "first time books" on the cover. But that is deceiving. It is a long book that has lots of words on each page, so reading to my 3 year old granddaughter that loves Berenstain Bears she got bored before we were done. The descriptions about conservation, recycling, cleaning up the envioronment etc was much more advanced for a beginning reader and even possibly for a young elementary student. So if this had been a chapter book I may had rated it better but I had to skip over much of the later pages to get to the back to finish the book. It also was a little 'too in your face' in my opinion as well as for as environmentalist. I feel like giving people information and letting them decide themselves is the best way without being in 'your face' about things. And this book was....

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of information for a child to digest, but well organized to urge everyone to get on the stick.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the message of this book is good, the tone of it bothered me a great deal. Here the adults are given the full blame for ruining the environment, and the message is given that it's up to the kids to make all the changes to get it fixed. Anytime you tell kids that they're smarter than the adults around them, you need to be cautious. While encouraging children to lead by example isn't a bad message by itself, the way their parents are portrayed as simply not caring at all, feels wrong, especially in this day and age. For years we adults have been worrying about the environment and teaching our children to be respectful of it.

I'm not sure how I would have improved this book, except to maybe not make such sweeping over-generalizations. The things the kids do to change their habits are good things though, so while this isn't my favorite Berenstain Bears book by a long shot, it's still one worth reading, perhaps with discussion (like so many of these) with your child, focusing more on the positive than the negative.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute" is not a typical tale of pollution, this story is one that can get through not only on a child's level but also on a grown-up's level as well. It takes a wonderful author that can impact both child and adult within the same novel but Stan Berenstain was able to do this beautifully. I highly recommend this story to parents wanting to explain the harmful effects of pollution to their small children.

I enjoy the Berenstain Bears, I have always liked the lessons that they taught growing up and now I enjoy teaching them to my own children. I will always recommend these stories, even if some of them don't make since sometimes due to the easy-to-read plans. You cannot go wrong with this bear family.

[Jalessia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book. I loved reading these books as a child. It talks about how Papa Bear wasn't that too concerned about the pollution problem in Bear Country. Just like some people in today's society. Then it gives you different point of views from various animals. A squirrel, bird, duck, and many more. Children will learn how pollution can affect them if nothing is done about it. While also learning ways to help protect the Earth. This book is also good for introducing vocabulary words that younger nd older children may not be familiar with. Parents could also help show their children ways they can help protect the Earth at home.

[Kelly Wickham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Berenstain Bears books. They are longer books when it comes to text, but I find that some are much wordier than others, especially the ones that deal with more serious subjects. This particular book is a good one with lots of useful information but is also densely worded and I found myself and the kids getting a bit fatigued and bored before the end. If there was a way to slim the text down some and be more precise about the subject of pollution, it would make a better book for kids. Like always, with BB books, it is brilliantly illustrated and has a lot of things to see in each picture.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about doing your part to protect against pollution and saving the Earth.

This is a great book for children to learn about how the Bear Cubs went about trying to do their part to take care of the Earth and the plants and animals on it.

Read this for a study on recycling, pollution or for Earth Day.

[LadyHague · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite a few more words than a typical Berenstain Bear book. Very demeaning of parents. Casts the children in light of “they know best and must teach& bully adults and others to do what they think”. Being responsible for our environment is important…but this book was a terrible way of going about it. Very disappointed and will be removing this book.

[Pamela Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berenstain Bears are always cute, but this one also makes some good points about caring for the environment. Some of the problems and solutions mentioned are a bit dated, but for younger students the point is still made: we can make a difference.

[Stef · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this and then read some Goodreads comments, anticipating that people wouldn't be happy about the political/controversial stance about respecting/saving the planet they live on. This book was written in the '90s and it's as true today as it was then.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marginally more socially aware than most BB books.

[Chantel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Laura]

*Coming Soon*

[Stefanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one hit a little close to home, oof.

[Lee Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Berenstain Bears books are fun and always teach great lessons. 3/5 stars.

[Kathy Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse.
Even children can make a difference.

[Chris Hays · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old and dated ideals and norms made this hard for my bear moving son to enjoy.

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much going on where someone's attention won't be focused.

Good concept to learn but shouldve been space apart better.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important lessons about taking care of the earth.

[Julie Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much originated in 1991.

[Kaya Wentz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Berenstein bears are getting too woke for me; might have to drop the series.

[Chrysanthemum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to introduce kids to the effects of pollution and what they can do to stop it.

[Shaye Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grade Level: K-2
Genre: Animal Fantasy

This is a really good book to read around Earth Day. It teaches the kids about how trash can hurt the environment and how we all can help keep the earth pretty and nice and safe for everyone to live in.

[Brooke Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the classic series of Berenstain Bears books, this one is about the family and how they are going to help make their world healthier to live in. The book starts off with Papa bears reading a newspaper story from one of their friends talking about how Bear Country was in serious trouble because of people not taking care of the environment. Papa bear thinks that the whole ordeal isn't a big deal while Mama, sister, and brother Bear think it's a huge deal. Brother and Sister Bear end up going down to talk to the Professor about the story and Professor ends up taking them all around bear country to show them just how bad the environment is around them. Brother and Sister Bear end up spreading the news and asking their classmates what they thought they could do to help save the environment. There is an excellent ending that helps bring the story to an end that makes everyone happy. I think that this is an excellent book to read especially to kids to show them that even though they are young they can still help to make a difference in their environment. The Berenstain Bears is a classic series and the fact that they touch on important topics also helps make them better to read to kids. The illustrations are done very well in this book and help the reader to see just how serious taking care of the earth should be. They are also very detailed which makes kids want to look at them even more and become interested in the story. I would recommend this book and the rest of the series to anyone because they are excellent books and the characters are interesting so kids as well as adults will become interested in them.

[Tessa Hensley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hello Earth Day. This book is all about pollution and why it is harmful and why we shouldn't do it. This would be a great book to share with students on Earth day especially to help give them an idea of the reasons we have Earth Day and what pollution is and why we need to treat the earth with respect. After reading you can have students make a list of all the ways they pollute and challenge them to not pollute for the whole month. Have them put together a clean up plan for cleaning up some of the pollution in town and then take a field trip to areas around your school and allow students to do a "town clean up". You can have students write a paper about the effects of pollution on different species, ours included. You can do lots of things with this book, pollution is a big deal, and this book shows kids that even if they pollute now that they can still change and quit harming the earth and it's inhabitants.

[Sarah Kasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keeping our planet clean is a hard, but important job. Educating our students about what to do to help keep pollution under control is paramount. I would share this book before we start a unit on pollution. The book includes some important vocabulary which would be a great start to this lesson, for example, "ecology," "conservation," and "recycle" are some words that would be good to bring up and ask students what they think they mean. I would love to have students create signs and banners and try to figure out what we could do as a community to help stop pollution, like the Berenstain Bears did in the story.

[J.D. Holman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to several classes yesterday, for Earth Day. It's a typical Berenstain Bears book, with a fun story offering a lesson that isn't too preachy. This time, the cubs learn about pollution from Professor Actual Factual, and they encourage their community to do something about the problem. There's nothing controversial, and if your school is a green one, your students probably practice most of the ideas the bears offer. Some of my students even pointed out how they cut the plastic can holders before throwing them away, which is not suggested in the book but could be, with the illustrations of fish being caught in the rings.