The Berenstain Bears and the Ghost of the Forest: No Moral, Good Prank, and Mama Gets to Be the Naughty One

The setup: the Bear Scouts are headed into the spooky forest for an overnight with Scout Leader Jane, no parents invited. Papa warns them about spooks and the Ghost of the Wood, and once they're out the door he climbs up to the attic, cuts three holes in a sheet, and follows them.

We definitely get Papa Bear at his most mischievous here. It fits the Papa Bear theme in a way, although the idea of him going out and trying to scare the cubs in the middle of the night is maybe a little over the top. It's all in good fun, apparently. But I can imagine a more real life scenario where this completely backfires on him horribly. The cubs are scarred for life. Leader Jane is furious. Mama Bear's even madder. I think they're just leaning into that Papa Bear mischievousness, his fondness for scary things, which we've seen in other books too, so it's not necessarily out of character.

It's a pretty short book. It was about a five, six minute read and overall pretty good. When the kids read it, they're always glued. I think some of that is the rhyming scheme, which is done really well, with entertaining images to go along with the story. It's one of the only books we have that follows the rhyming scheme. We have this one, and we have one Christmas one where it's essentially rhyming throughout. I definitely like it. They're actually pretty good at writing out the rhymes, and it flows off the tongue really well.

There's a few that are maybe awkward, trying to squeeze some plot in, and it comes across a little weird. With a few practice reads I've become better at it, making sure I'm hitting the right rhythm that they're intending. My kids in particular definitely seem pretty interested in any book that rhymes, so this one matches that really well.

A prank, a counter-prank, and no stern talking-to

We see the cubs have this nice process of wanting to go out on their own, being a little afraid, getting to be in on this inside joke with Leader Jane, and then you get the plot twist with Mama Bear at the end. Honestly, if this is the first time you're reading it, you wouldn't expect to see that coming. It was actually pretty well hidden.

We do get something funny from Mama at the end there. Usually Mama would be the one who would swoop in and be like, hey, what are you doing, Papa? You shouldn't be scaring the bears like that. Instead, she matches him and catches them all off guard. We don't see a lot of those from Mama where she breaks from that typical Mama Bear I-know-best, I'll-be-the-adult-in-the-room type of role, and I actually kind of like it. It's still in theme for her for the most part, and it doesn't seem out of place necessarily. It's nice to get a book that takes her out of that typical mold. We don't get a stern talking-to for Papa Bear at the end or anything like that. Instead, we get this prank.

Don't be afraid of ghosts, allegedly

At least on the outset, this book doesn't really have a moral to it. If you were to pick one, starting from the end of the book and working back, it's essentially don't be afraid of ghosts. They don't really set that up throughout the book, though. I also think it's funny that they use the word spooks instead of ghosts here. The book was published in 1988, so maybe that was more of a popular thing then, or maybe it's just an easier word to rhyme. Either way, I kind of think it's funny. The bears do signal that they're a little afraid, but it doesn't seem like this major central tension in the book.

If you were to try to pick out the moral from the beginning forward, it's almost more independence driven. The bears going off for a night with Leader Jane without their parents there, and the independence of being out on their own. Jane says it's good that Papa's not there. Maybe some of that is that he's a troublemaker and she's worried that he's going to derail their trip, but maybe some of it's just wanting the cubs to have a night on their own, apparently using their cub scout skills to camp out in the wilderness.

I think we can probably say the intention from the authors was you shouldn't be afraid of ghosts. They almost just overtly say that at the end. It's a double ghost lesson: there are no such things, there never have been, but you can also have fun with it. I don't think this book really sets a kid up to not be afraid of ghosts as a result. The kids wouldn't be given any tools on how to handle it. If anything, they're going to be frightened to camp out at night because their parents are going to try to go out and scare them. So in terms of the moral of the story, this is a one out of five. They slapped that on at the end, and it almost seems like they just felt obliged to because it's a Berenstain Bears book, as opposed to just writing a book for fun.

The pictures have to carry the plot, and they do

The illustrations are very, very good for the most part. Because of the rhyming scheme, the text is a little less descriptive than a lot of their other books, so the illustrations have to play a pretty central role in terms of what characters are thinking, which ones are talking, that kind of thing.

We're definitely given a few pieces of very kid-friendly eye candy with a couple mock-ups of "spooks." The Berenstains always do a really great job of being creative there and making something that's fun to look at but not overtly scary. That's one thing they always had to be careful about with these books: when you're tackling some topics head on, you could have the reverse effect and actually make somebody more afraid of it. These are clearly ghosts, but they're interesting for a kid to look at. They can almost laugh at them.

Along the way we get all the different expressions: the cubs looking really upset as they head into the woods, worried about what Papa said, and Leader Jane looking really proud of herself for discovering Papa.

Then Mama Bear at the very end has that oops, I was a little naughty type of look on her face, with the cubs kind of enjoying it and Papa and Leader Jane being pretty stunned by the whole thing. We get some good looking spooks and some really great facial expressions from all of the bears, honestly.

The cubs are very good actors

The one thing I'm left to wonder is this. It seems pretty clear by the expressions on the cubs' faces that they were in on the prank that Leader Jane was pulling. Initially they're acting frightened when they see Papa Bear, running into the tent to try to find her. But then during the reveal where Jane is scaring Papa, we get this image of all the cubs just confidently staring at Papa as he's scared, with Jane behind him. They wouldn't have been able to come down from their fright that quickly, or in general they would have also been afraid of Jane there. They're very good actors on that, which is kind of funny that they played that role.

And this isn't a book I pick out for any particular moral. It's not coming out because my kids are afraid of the dark, and it's not coming out because they're going to have a night without us. There actually are other Berenstain Bears books that fit those really well, two of which I'll end up getting to: The Berenstain Bears Afraid of the Dark, which is much more central to kids being afraid of something, and The Berenstain Bears and the Sitter for the independence or any anxiety about not being with your mom or your dad. This one is pulled out for fun. It's pulled out for the rhyme, and because the story is pretty interesting.