“Down a Sunny Dirt Road,” by Stan and Jan Berenstain
(2002, 202 pages, Genre: Children’s Nonfiction – Autobiography)
It is more than possible that reading the title or the authors’ names above brought back memories of a book you read or someone read to you. Stan and Jan Berenstain began writing children’s books in 1962 and never stopped. Even now, their son Michael continues to publish new titles in the Berenstain Bears series. My own childhood home contained the very first Berenstain Bears book – The Big Honey Hunt – as well as McCall’s Magazine’s monthly Berenstain family-based comic. Among the first authors to contribute to Random House Publishing’s Beginner Books division, co-founded by Ted “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, the Berenstains influenced children’s literature for more than forty years.
In this joint autobiography, illustrated by the authors, we learn of their childhoods in disparate Philadelphia environs, their meeting at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, and their life together as cartoonists, authors, illustrators and parents. Separated only by World War II, when Stan was drafted into the army and Jan learned to be an aircraft riveter, the two lived and worked as a team for over fifty years.
This is a cozy biography, as if the reader is sitting with dear friends and listening to their stories. The book also includes artwork drawn by both Stan and Jan throughout their lives (though not, alas, Stan’s red crayon mural on his parents’ freshly painted white walls!). I really appreciated seeing the different styles and work that they did in high school and the art school, as well as early cartoons and illustrations they did while trying to break into the post-war world of magazine publishing. Family photos from their parents through their own children also add a personal touch.
You can find this book in the Children’s Room at Concord library, but I assure you it’s an enjoyable read for anyone who has fond memories of those Bears!
Visit the Concord Public Library at http://www.concordpubliclibrary.net
Julia Miller
