Pre-readers and early readers will enjoy the story of the anthropomorphized nuclear family of ursids as they seek a place for a rural repast. To their dismay, they encounter pollution, crowds, bad weather, garbage, inhospitable insects, and low flying jets, and like many of their hominin counterparts, ultimately opt for eating at home around the kitchen table. To the pre-adolescent, this book may introduce and reinforce the distrust /dislike of nature that has overtaken two generations of the developed world, and who prefer TV and video games to actual experiences. To astute adults, this book paints a grim picture of a noisy and polluted future in which "outside" is increasingly an alien and threatening environment full of hazards and discomforts. To the pre- and semi-literate, the rhyming couplets and simple vocabulary will sugar- coat its dystrophic message. To ability, few will find much challenge; to intellect none and any. ( )

I love all of these books, but I especially like this one in particular because of the rhyming. I think it would be a great book to read to a first grade class to introduce rhyming. The Bears are going on a picnic, but every place they go seems to be a miss until they finally go home. Home is the perfect place for their picnic and they enjoy some family time together. Teachers might also take the class outside on a picnic for lunch the same day that this book was read for a fun activity to boost understanding and activate memory of rhyming. It was a great read and example. ( )

In my opinion, “The Bears’ Picnic” is a wonderful book for beginning readers for many reasons. The first reason is the rhyming pattern of the story. The book is written in four line verses where lines 2 and 4 rhyme. For instance, “Mother bear,/put your apron away./We are going to go/on a picnic today!” The rhyming nature of the story is appealing to listen to, and also is very helpful for beginning readers who may not know all the words in the text. Another reason that this book is good for beginning readers is the way the text is organized. The text is written in four line stanzas which makes the text easier to read as opposed to if it was written in long paragraphs, in which case a beginning reader may get overwhelmed, or lose their place while reading. The text is also in a large font and is written on a solid white background. The pictures are still large and colorful, but they never interfere with the words on the page. The main idea of the book is to tell the story of the day that the Bear family went on a picnic, and highlight all the problems that they came across while they were out. ( )

I have no idea why the Berenstains gave up these funny early readers for moralizing tales!

Modern day Berenstain bear books aren't as good as the older ones, that's for sure. Go on too long, and they all have a treacly moral at the end, and they're just not funny.

This is one of the original. Now, the cover there shows the newer, cutesified bears, but inside it has the old illustrations - with claws!

Anyway, the story progresses just about how you'd expect. Papa Bear wants to go on a picnic, every place is perfect right up until it's NOT, and eventually he ends up back home. It's funny, it rhymes, and there's no moral gumming the story up.

Interestingly, not all the characters are bears. We've got some rabbits and monkeys and others in the mix as well. ( )

This is such a good rhyming book! It discusses the bears many attempts to find the perfect picnic spot. All spots seem to become ruined by something new. Finally the bears find just the spot-their living room. Kids find this very humourous and fun to read. I thought this was such a great book.