Stan and Jan

One of the most rewarding parts of parenting is to see things that you loved as a child being passed on to your own children.  I love reading my old books to my boys, watching them play with my old stuffed animals and dollhouse.  Scott can't wait to start reading The Hardy Boys out loud to them and my mind is made up that one day they will fall in love with Psalty the Singing Songbook.  :)

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I have distinct memories from my childhood of my Mom and Dad reading me the Berenstain Bears books.  We owned every single one and I just loved reading about the adventures of Brother and Sister Bear and learning such wise lessons from Mama and Papa (well, let's be honest, most of the wise lessons come from Mama Bear, Papa is like having another kid - or should I say cub?). These books were seriously one of the staples of my childhood.

Camden is obsessed with these books right now.  We probably read 10 of them a day out loud and at other times he climbs up on the couch (or toilet) with a pile of 15 and entertains himself for a good 30 minutes (rare, but true!).  I love that he loves these books and Scott and I both agree that they're actually somewhat enjoyable to read with them.  Even though we both grew up on these books, they haven't gotten old yet.

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Sadly, Jan Berenstain died this past weekend.  Her husband, Stan, died in 2005.  Together (they both wrote and they both drew the pictures...they were quite a team!) they sold over 200 million books and their very first editor was Theodor Geisel - Dr. Seuss himself! 


I thought I should mark Jan's passing with a public proclamation of my love for her books.  I truly think Stan and Jan made the world a better place.  They will be missed, but their books will live on - I know I'll be reading them to my grandchildren one day!


I snuck this picture of Camden reading on the couch the other day without even thinking I would ever write a post about this.  He really does love these stories though! 

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