Customer Reviews

The Berenstain Bears' Mad, Mad, Mad Toy Craze

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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Berenstain Bears First Time Books usually touch upon some true to life problem that children encounter in their lives. The stories end with some meaning, helpful solution or an understanding that maybe it's not really a big problem. "Mad, Mad, Mad Toy Craze" does neither of these. The story is true to the Beanie Baby craze but there is no solution or even an understanding at the end. My children and myself were for the first time truly confused and disappointed with an ending of a Berenstain Bear book. If the goal of the book was for the children to come up with better ending to this story, then we succeeded. I will still continue buying this series but I will not recommend this book to anyone.

This book came right on the heels of the Beany Baby toy craze, but it fits perfectly for anyone, kid or grownup, who spends more time/money/interest on whatever the latest craze be, (Barbie, Yu-gi-oh, Digimon, the JFK auction, etc). I read this one out loud to my son, putting in sound effects and laughing at the characters, at the little whaddevers they were maniacally trying to buy, at the monomania of the cubs over the whole mess. I fear this may hit too close to home for some people--ever notice how many Beanys turn up at yard sales these days? SPOILER ALERT!!! As another reviewer noted, there is no real ending, the story just trails off, with Brother Bear's "What the heck did we just do?" look, and nobody's really learned anything. Now of course, there is a moral regarding passing fads, but it's just not as spelled out as explicitly as in most of the other books. Personally this had me on the floor laughing, my favorite line being "the only thing you could do with them was just LOOK at them", but I can see where other parents would object. Buy this one at your own risk, and write your own ending.

My 6-year old is a huge fan of the Berenstain Bears books, and this is one of his favorites. He likes the story and he understands the moral, even if he doesn's always follow the lesson learned!

The Barenstain bears learn an important lesson about market bubbles. If only the folks at Lehman Bros. had read this book!

My kids have gone nuts for commercial toy crazes, at times--what kids haven't? This book teaches a great lesson about how this sort of thing can backfire. It gives parents a way to introduce the idea to commercially-pressured kids that maybe it isn't such a great idea to jump on board the latest toy craze bandwagon and rush out to buy all sorts of useless overpriced toys. This a fine addition to the Berenstain Bears line of books.

Nice little book The bear collection is timeless as ussually and geat lessons for all to learn and talk to your kids about.

These are really great books. My son loved these books. They are fun,exciting, and they actually have a really good lesson in each one. These are by far the best children's book out.