Berenstain Bears Bibliography & Blog

THIS PART OF MY COLLECTION IS FINALLY COMPLETE!!!

I finally have every edition of The Berenstain Bears Are a Family, The Berenstain Bears Four Seasons, The Berenstain Bears Say Good Night, and The Berenstain Bears at the Super-Duper Market! 

The First First Time Books (Random House, 1991) have always been an odd mini-series within the world of Berenstain Bears books (yes, that’s not a typo – they are FIRST First Time Books). These four books were designed to be true “first time” early readers; a spin-off of the First Time Books series that were about first-time life experiences, not books designed for ‘first time’ readers (a point of confusion even today – new parents crack open the First Time Books and are always surprised at HOW MUCH TEXT there is!). Anyway, these First First Time Books were much shorter, and they used smaller words and shorter sentences. 

What makes collecting these books a little confusing and frustrating is that there are several different versions/editions of these books, even though there are only four of them!  The original commercial editions were hardcovers published by Random House in 1991, featuring a matte hardboard cover and a unique fabric and glue binding with four unique colors. At the same time (or shortly thereafter), Random House licensed these books to Scholastic for sale exclusively through their educational market – think school book fairs and monthly book order clubs. In contrast to the hardcover commercial editions, these Scholastic editions were paperback.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE.

Amongst the Scholastic paperbacks, there were two versions/editions of each book. One was a stand-alone book featuring a unique ISBN (no barcode, as was common at the time amongst all book club editions) and the other was an almost identical book that was sold paired with an audio cassette recording of the book. The only way to tell if the book was originally sold with an audio cassette is to look at the back cover, which features another unique ISBN number. The First First Time Book series had a limited run and was soon out of print. 

But in 1996, Random House decided to re-launch the four titles as part of their new “Toddler Books” series. This was a broader series published by Random House (including titles by Little Critter, Sesame Street, etc.) and not unique to the Berenstain Bears, as the First First Time Books were. The Toddler Books were once again hardcover (like the original Random House books) but now featured a glossy cover and more traditional binding. Like the original 1991 series, the 1996 Toddler Books saw a limited number of printings and soon disappeared from stores. 

Fast forward all the way to 2012, when several back-catalog Berenstain Bears books were re-published by Dover. The market saw beautiful, high-quality bind-ups of vintage Bear Facts Library titles (The Big Book of Science and Nature), coloring/activity books (Giant Coloring and Activity Book), the Do-It! Series (First Time Do-It! Book), and The Berenstain Bears Storytime Treasury, a bind-up including all four titles in the original First First Time Books series. 

For collectors, the cassette tapes (and the accompanying books with their unique ISBN numbers) were produced in the smallest quantities and have proven the most difficult to locate over the years. For me personally, the last piece of the puzzle was an authentic cassette tape (not only in the original packaging but still sealed in cellophone) of The Berenstain Bears at the Super Duper Market. I spent years trying to find this recording until one just randomly showed up on eBay one day and I immediately got an email (thank goodness for saved searches!). 

Compare the binding (L to R) of the original 1991 First First Time Books hardcover with colored binding tape; the Scholastic paperback editions; and the 1996 re-release under the “Toddler Books” series branding.