Jan Berenstain, co-creator of the much loved Berenstain Bears books with her husband Stan, has passed away at the age of 88. According to NPR, she suffered a stroke while in her studio last Thursday and passed away on Friday. The first Berenstain Bear book was published in 1962 and more than 300 titles have been published. Stan passed away in 2005.
The books in recent years have tackled modern subjects such as online safety and childhood obesity, and the bears (or their human helpers) answer children’s emails and letters, but the goal is to tell enduring, universal stories. Perennial favorites cover challenges of getting kids to doing chores, defuse fears of the first day of school and teach values of kindness and generosity.
“It’s wonderful to do something you love for so many years,” Jan Berenstain told the AP in 2011. “Not everyone has that.”
Her books were always a favorite of mine as a kid. My mother for the longest time would threaten me and my brother with a giant box any time our room got messy (she got the idea from “The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room”
Thanks for the happy memories of childhood Jan (and Stan), RIP.