The Berenstain Bears Love Their Neighbors

The Berenstain Bears Living Lights

by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain, Mike Berenstain

Young readers will understand what loving your neighbor looks like in this addition to the Living Lights™ series of Berenstain Bears books. Children will learn that being a good neighbor takes more than having a nice home. The Berenstain Bears Love Their Neighbors— part of the popular Zonderkidz Living Lights series of books—is perfect The Berenstain Bears Love Their Neighbors :

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Christian, Animals, Young Readers, Love

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

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

[Zach Brumaire]

[continuing my retrospective of the Berenstain Bears as conducted by Phil Gonzales]

in which the Papa and Mama Bear are fucking classist

also canonically Squire Grizzly is a billionaire (bearillionbear?) and Mayor Horace J Hunnypot (great name 💋🤌) is in his pocket as established in the chapter books?!?!

[Mavis’s Dad]

I thought this book was going to be a Valentine’s Day tale. Boy was I wrong.

Moral: Love thy neighbors.

Length: Brevity is not in the Berenstain Bears’ vocabulary. For as religious as these are, they should read more like Jesus’s parables.

Favorite Line: “‘Those Bogg brothers!’ Mama would say whenever she saw them ‘They’re a disgrace to the neighborhood!’”

Overall Impression: I wish this was shorter because Mama and Papa learn a real lesson here about being neighborly that resonates far after their car is repaired. They are enamored with the wealthy and those with status but it’s the poor people in the trailer who end up being the good neighbor while the billionaire bear and politically minded are as crooked as can be. It’s almost as if the book was written in 2026. Somebody should read it to JD Vance; maybe he could learn something.

[Anzleigh Dingey]

The Berenstain Bears Love their Neighbors is about the bear family learning the importance of being kind, helpful, and caring toward the people around them. The story helps to show how small acts of kindness can make a difference in a community.

This book is one of my childhood favorites. I believe that this book has a good message about treating others with kindness. It is an easy book to understand and something young children can relate to.

The illustrations are very colorful and detailed, it helps to show the characters, feelings and add value to the message.

I think this book is best for Pre-K to second grade. In my future classroom, I would use this book to teach about kindness and the acts of being a good neighbor.

[Gia Bittner]

A loose retelling of the Good Samaritan story. The Bear family’s car breaks down, and both the mayor and the town’s rich squire drive by without pulling over to help. Then the Bogg brothers, the “weird” neighbors whom Mama and Papa Bear had previously misjudged and shunned, pull over and save the day. A sweet story with a good lesson, but I’m deducting a star because the Bogg brothers are a bit caricatured with some unfortunate stereotypes commonly associated with poor people. Rather than stigmatizing low-income families, I would’ve rather seen this story feature a “Good Samaritan” analog with some completely innocuous difference from the Bear family - for example, a family of pandas.
-Mama

[Chris Martinez]

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” - Luke 10:27-29

The Berenstain Bear cubs learn a valuable lessen when their family misjudge their neighbors, the Bogg brother. When the Berenenstain Bears car breaks down on the way to the town festival, no one from the town stops to help. Only the neighbors they misjudged stopped to help.

[Emily Gayle]

This was a long book that did not hold the kids attention that well. It has a really great message of being a good neighbor. Actually helping out people when they need something instead of relying on someone else to help.

[Water Viper]

I loved this retelling of the good Samaritan.

[Kelly Chester]

The Berenstain bears what a great book

[Liam Dawson]

A nice book about being neighborly. Kids enjoyed the story.

[Samuel]

I liked it! Most Berenstain Bears books are good!

[Jordan]

I recall reading that the Berenstain Bears—those mainstays of my childhood—had become more explicitly Christian in recent volumes (which are now published by Zondervan), but this is the first of those newer tales I've actually read. This is a surprisingly effective retelling of the parable of the Good Samaritan (the epigraph on the title page comes from St Luke 10). This Berenstain-style adaptation excels because it successfully invites you to join the Bear family in looking down on their uncouth, slovenly, and very stereotypically hillbilly neighbors, and then pulls the rug out from under you when said neighbors are the only ones who stop to help the Bears when they need it. The Bear family shows genuine surprise and shame at their previous lack of charity. A good example of making an old story fresh again, restoring some of the punch to a parable that often lacks it because of its sheer familiarity. A pleasant surprise.

[Corey]

I know these books are only a few pages long, but this one actually started out a little slow for me. But I just had to know where they were going with it just because of the cover. Yes, I judged a book by its cover. I think this one was a little slow at the beginning because there was more storyline set-up needed than in the other books of the series. This turned out to be one of my favorite Berenstain Bears books. Mama and Papa Bear made judgments about their "problem" neighbors without really knowing their neighbors aside from what they observed about how the yard is kept (or unkempt). The Bear family, of course, realized their mistakes by the end of the story, because it just would not be a Berenstain Bears story if they did not learn a lesson by the end. The lesson of this story: do not judge someone you know nothing about, and that friends can show up in the most unlikely places from what you think are the most unlikely sources. This is another great book in this series that is applicable for both children and adults.

[Margaret Chind]

We read this in The Berenstain Bears Show God's Love storybook collection. It's great bear version of the good Samaritan. Filled with examples of stereotypes and prejudice and showing how things can work out in ways you least expect.

[Amanda]

This was a nice one about helping out neighbors and not judging people based on looks.

[Jacqueline]

The Berenstain Bears learn humility after judging their atypical neighbors Clem, Shem, and Lem Bogg.