A Great Book I Love To Read!

Books can take ya places you've never been!

Hiya, Friends!  The other day, I talked to you about how when I'm not really in the mood to write, but I need to, I read instead, and I wanna tell you about a really neat book I've been reading!

It's called The Berenstain Bears' Picnic!  O, is it ever a good book!  It starts out with Papa Bear saying he's gonna take Mama bear and Small Bear on a picnic.  Well, it's an early Berenstain Bears book, because Brother Bear is just Small Bear in this book.  There's no Sister Bear yet. 

Anyway, the Bear family leaves their treehouse and heads off for a picnic.  They're all happy and excited, because what's more fun than eatin' food outside?

Papa Bear finds a really nice picnic spot, where there's nicey soft grass, and trees, and it's quiet... until the loud and sooty train comes screamin' through!  That's right !  Papa Bear's perfect picnic spot is right smack-dab beside a train-track!

I wonder if it's the same train track from the song where the Peanut is sittin' on the railroad track.  It isn't mentioned in this particular story, but why would the Berenstain Bears rehash someone else's tragedy in their book about going on a wonderful family picnic?

After the train, the Bear family picks up their picnic and goes to a picnic area that Papa thinks is gonna be quiet, but a bazillion buses pull in, and as it turns out, there's a big picnic in the woods that day!  The Bear family wants a picnic with just them, not with a buncha people they don't know, so they head off to another spot that looks nice and wonderful, but just as they get their picnic all put out, a bulldozer dumps GARBAGE on 'em, because they're in a DUMP!

Friends, either that dump the Bear family was tryin' to picnic in was brand-new, or they were pretty oblivious.  And I've gotta say, if I had a picnic all set up, and a bulldozer dumped GARBAGE on me and my food, I wouldn't just pack it right the heck back up and head to the next spot.  I'd go home and take a shower and cry. 

Well, really, I'd cry, go home, still crying, and weep while I stood in the shower.

But not the Bear family!  They press on!  And Papa finds a really nice spot, in an open field.  The grass looks nice and soft.  There aren't any high edges around 'em for a bulldozer to dump garbage on 'em.  I had high hopes for this picnic spot, but then a jet came in for a landing, not high above their heads, and that put 'em off that spot, lickety-split.

Up they pack, and off they go, searching for another place to picnic.

Books can help ya understand places or situations you HAVE experienced!

Papa finds another great spot, all in the shade, with flowered weeds.  It looks as though the Bear family will FINALLY get to eat their sandwiches, but then a battalion of MOSQUITOES attacks them! 

I know I haven't been around much, and Mommy really tries to limit my exposure to things like mosquitoes, so I'm not sure, but the time I did get bit by one, it was really itchy, and the Bear family was attacked by COUNTLESS mosquitoes!  As for me, I'd be running for the calamine lotion, not looking for another picnic spot.

Papa Bear leads his family up to a tall, isolated spot that they have to climb up to. They climb, and climb, and climb, and get to the top, where they unpack their picnic AGAIN, and they have the sandwiches right in their hands, for Pete's Aches, right in their hands, with their mouths open, like they're gonna take a big bite after all, and...

Well, darned if it doesn't start raining, with thundery lightning and everything.  And Papa Bear gets struck in the hiney-butt by a bolt of lightning!

Friends, it was in that spot where I finally had to exercise my verisimilitude.  I had to put my disbelief in suspension.  Because I know in the real world, if ya got struck in the hiney-butt by a bolt of lightning such as the one that struck Papa Bear in the hiney-butt, in the very best case scenario, you'd be lookin' for a ride to the hospital.  You wouldn't be determined to find another spot to picnic in.

Lightning bolts to the hiney-butt are serious business, Friends!  Not something to be cavalier about!

But, this is a work of fiction, after all, so Mama Bear leads the Bear family to the perfect picnic spot... their very own home.

How about that?!

All I can think as I'm readin' that book, Friends, is what a trooper Small Bear is, through all that.  The Bear family set out on their search for a picnic spot right at lunch time.  So they musta been hungry when they started. Small Bear musta been hungry.  And it was HOURS before they got home to eat.  I mean, Papa Bear, although well-intentioned, spent a LOT of time, diddling around at unacceptable picnic spots before they went and ate at home.

It makes me think of that time I was stuck in the car all day, and I was tired and hungry, and then when we got to the restaurant, I spazzed right the heck out, and didn't wanna eat anything, and I didn't wanna let Mommy and Daddy eat anything, and I really didn't care whether anybody else in the restaurant ate anything, either.  I think you remember hearing about this, Friends.  It was the "Bully Hill Incident." 

BOOKS TEACHYA IMPORTANT LIFE LESSONS!

I thought I'd never see the inside of a restaurant again after that one, Friends.  But Mommy and Daddy recognized that it wasn't really me screaming and wailing that day.  It was the hungry and the tired.  Just like Small Bear was hungry and tired.  He handled it a lot better than I did.  I'll admit it.

But, I'm just learning.  And I'm glad that I have Small Bear to turn to, to help me learn.  If my Mommy and Daddy ever decide to take me on a picnic, I am going to bring along the following things, just in case: bug repellant, ear-protectors, a poncho, a NOAA weather radio, some of my yogurts to eat along the way, my sunhat, hand sanitizer, some trail mix, and a charged cellular telephone, so I can call Gramma and Pop-Pop to come get me and put an end to all this picnic nonsense.

This kid isn't gonna mess around!  I learn from the things I read!  Yes I do!

So I'll see ya tomorrow, Friends.  I love ya lots!  Muah!