Customer Reviews

The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book because my 2 1/2 year old daughter was having nightmares. It explained to her what nightmares were in a way that she could understand. After I finished the book she said "no monsters Mommy?". I have read it to her before bed everynight since I bought it and she has not had nightmares since. I would recommend it to anyone who has a child who is having nightmares or who is afraid of monsters in the night. What a lifesaver this book is...I now get a full night's sleep again!

Heather

Both "Brother" and "Sister" Bear have bad dreams after they play with some toy monsters, and "Brother" sees a movie about them. "Mama Bear" and "Papa Bear" comfort them when they each have bad dreams that night:

"But it was so real!" she said, calming down a bit.
"That's how it is with dreams," he [Papa] said. "It's as if they're really happening, but they're not-they're just in your mind."

After Sister explains the dream, Mama explains that the mind keeps thinking during sleep, but in a nonsensical way, and that a dream "takes all the things you were thinking or were nervous about during the day and puts them together all jumbled like a mixed-up jigsaw puzzle." Mama validates that the dream is scary but also points out how it was interesting.

This may or may not help a child experiencing his/her first nightmares. It's might be useful as an initial explanation, but it doesn't (nor does it intend to) offer much more insight or coping strategies than those mentioned above. As usual, the drawings are fairly bland and unimaginative, but will be familiar to the Berenstain Bear fan.

We expanded our collection of Berenstain Bears books this Christmas. Our sons, ages 6 and 4, enjoy these books and find it easy to relate to the young bears in the series. I like to mix these stories into our rotation of bedtime books as the need arises. That's how I came to buy "The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream."

This past year has been an especially hard on the boys. All of the superhero movies they wanted to see - Iron Man and Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight - were not appropriate for their age. I mention this because at the heart of this book is brother bear's desire to see "Space Grizzlies," a movie that leads to the titular bad dream. So, this book helped illustrate why I didn't want my sons to see PG- or PG-13-rated movies.

This book hasn't stopped my sons from having bad dreams but it has become a useful resource that helps us talk through what causes bad dreams and why the dreams themselves can't hurt us.

We also own and recommend:

The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores

The Berenstain Bears Help Around the House

The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners

The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight

The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers

This book has the advantage of both being really funny and really helpful. The story about a movie featuring "Space Grizzlies" is hilarious, while the lesson about how to deal with and understand the bad dreams that the movie can inspire is genuinely helpful.

I felt this book helped my little one understand the meaning behind his dreams. Also that his dreams aren't really bad, they are just a puzzle of things he has done throughout the day.

Authors do well at addressing this topic. I was worried about the book scaring my children but that did not happen.

our son HAD to have this book....it is one of his favorites.

we love the fact that the stories have a meaning or lesson to

be learned in each one.

"I like your book so much that I actually feel like I am in the book. Every time I look at my mom and dad, they look like Mama and Papa Bear. I love it."

We own many of the Bear Cub adventures, and always find Mama Bear to be a great Mama. This is a good title, but in my opinion a little too long on the build up to the bad dreams and too short of the "dealing with the bad dreams" and I was also sad to see NO "how not to have bad dreams" discussion.

But we still like it, we still read it. My 4 year old "read" it to his stuffed money last night when the monkey didn't feel good and was resting.

BB Learn About Stranges is a better one, dealing more completely with the issue of strangers whereas this one doesn't fully address bad dreams as i would like. However, most any BB cub adventure is well recieved in this home.

These Bear series booklets are perfect for any issue arising during the preschool age and beyond. My 3 1/2 year old loves these series at bedtime, especially "the Bad Dream", because she wants to understand why kids have bad dreams. Even the "SpaceGrizzlies" characters in the story, were a little scary at first. As we read the story bit by bit, she overcame her anxiety and loved reciting the story, acting it out with her plush animals. I would recommend choosing any book from the series as real situations arise to help, or get a handful for story reading which can be used as example later. I preview the books at a store if not sure how the tale goes or how wordy the stories can get sometimes.