Blog Tour: The Berenstain Bears Love One Another

Do you remember reading the Berenstain Bears growing up? I still remember checking out books in the series from our church library as a kid. I was happy to find out that even though Stan and Jan Berenstain passed away, their son Mike continues to write and illustrate new bear books! I love passing down books and characters I loved as a little girl to Bear and Mouse, and the Berenstain Bears always offer wholesome family values and positive lessons.

Today I’m excited to share one of the newest board books in the Berenstain Bears series, The Berenstain Bears Love One Another. This board book is perfect for preschoolers like Bonnie, but simple and short enough that we could easily engage Margaret at the same time.

The book begins with Mama, Sister and Brother baking muffins in the kitchen. When one of the cubs asks if they can eat the muffins, Mama explains that they are bringing them to another family that just had a new baby cub. Mama tells them that finding ways to help others is how they can live out the Bible verse, “Love One Another.” The cubs take this to heart and come up with a few other ways to show love through their actions.

Our family rule is, “Love God, love others,” and I loved that this book was able to break down the meaning on Bonnie’s level! She especially related to the scene where the older siblings help play with the baby as a way of helping Mama Bear.

The holidays are coming, and I still want love to be the loudest voice in our home… above the gifts and toys, sparkle and lights, busy nights and rush from place to place. When we teach our kids to give, we teach them to love. When we do random acts of kindness together, we teach them that love is not something that is deserved or earned, but something that can be given freely and unconditionally. When we show them how to see and meet others’ needs, we teach them how to be good stewards of the gifts that we are given. This book is such a neat reminder of those lessons!

After reading this book a couple dozen times (at least), Bonnie and I decided to make a batch of Amish friendship bread. We’ll get to take a finished loaf to share at Thanksgiving, and have some extra starter to share with friends.

There are so many other great beyond the book activities you could do. I’ve collected some of my favorite bear activities, random acts of kindness, and a few recipes to share on this Pinterest Board.

 

I received Love One Another from Worthy Publishing as part of their First Look blog tour in exchange for my honest review. We’ll be following the blog tour this week on Twitter, if you’d like to say hello there!

You can find your copy of the book here.