Since the 1962 debut of the first Berenstain Bears book, The Big Honey Hunt, the series has grown to over 400 titles, which have sold approximately 260 million copies in 23 languages.

[2] Stanley Berenstain and Janice Grant met in 1941, on their first day of drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, where they formed an immediate bond.

[3][4][6] In 1951, they published Berenstains' Baby Book,[7] a humorous how-to aimed at adults and based on their experiences raising their infant son Leo in downtown Philadelphia.

[5] Nearly two dozen other books followed; described by Stan as "cartoon essays", the titles included Marital Blitz, How To Teach Your Children About Sex Without Making A Complete Fool of Yourself,[8] and Have A Baby, My Wife Just Had A Cigar!

[5] (The Berenstains did not consider the similarity to their last name in making the choice)[5][10] In their 2002 memoir, they said that they knew from the start that their book would "have three characters: a bluff, overenthusiastic Papa Bear who wore bib overalls and a plaid shirt and ...a wise Mama Bear who wore a blue dress with white polka dots ... and a bright, lively little cub.

[10] Geisel took on the manuscript, but spent the next two years ruthlessly challenging the Berenstains to make improvements to the writing and structure and to connect with their characters on a deeper level.

"[5][6] The second bear book, The Bike Lesson, appeared in 1964, featuring the names Stan and Jan Berenstain instead of Stanley and Janice; Geisel had changed the credit without consulting them.

[10] Following Stan's death from lymphoma in 2005, Mike collaborated with his mother on writing and illustrating Berenstain Bears installments, while Leo has been involved with the business side of the franchise.

"[20] The litany of issues confronted by the Berenstain Bears over their fifty years of publication includes bullying, messiness, poor sportsmanship, visiting the dentist, online safety, and childhood obesity, among countless others.

[1][5][21] The Berenstains often drew inspiration from their own family experiences, which Stan credited for the series' continued relevance: "Kids still tell fibs and they mess up their rooms and they still throw tantrums in the supermarket ... Nobody gets shot.

"[4][11] The couple also pointed out, in response to criticism of the characterization of Papa and Mama Bear, that the characters were heavily inspired by Stan and Jan Berenstain themselves.

[22] The series has received praise and awards for its contributions to children's literature[23] as well as condemnation for promoting outdated gender roles, simplistic and unrealistic messages, and not keeping up with the times.

[15] Critics of the series have called it "syrupy", "unsatisfying", "infuriatingly formulaic", "hokey", "abominable", and "little more than stern lectures dressed up as children's stories".

Written by Paul Farhi, who had previously rebuked the Berenstain Bears as the most popular example of a lamentable and misguided "self-help" genre aimed at children,[2] the 2005 piece revived his earlier sentiments: The larger questions about the popularity of the Berenstain Bears are more troubling: Is this what we really want from children's books in the first place, a world filled with scares and neuroses and problems to be toughed out and solved?

[26][27] Slate's Hanna Rosin drew criticism for the writing of Jan Berenstain's death, "As any right-thinking mother will agree, good riddance.

(Rosin subsequently apologized and admitted she "was not really thinking of [Berenstain] as a person with actual feelings and a family, just an abstraction who happened to write these books".

The franchise exploded in size in the 1980s, when King Features began aggressively promoting the Bears to marketers amidst a surge in popularity following a series of animated television specials.

[12] In 2011, 20 episodes of the Nelvana series were dubbed in the Native American Lakota language and began airing on public television in North and South Dakota under the title Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe ("The Compassionate Bear Family").

The translated series was a collaboration of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and the nonprofit Lakota Language Consortium, with Mike Berenstain and Nelvana waiving all licensing fees for the venture.

Organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and timed to coincide with the release of the Berenstains' memoir Down A Sunny Dirt Road, the exhibit provided a retrospective of the couple's artwork, influences and techniques, as well as the evolution of their famous bears.

in Family Matters, the Musical debuted in June 2011 at MMAC (Manhattan Movie and Arts Center) in New York City, after having toured the country in an earlier version.

[10] In 1997, they published The Berenstain Bear Scouts and the Sinister Smoke Ring; Florida governor Lawton Chiles purchased 600,000 copies of the book to distribute to children as part of his anti-smoking campaign.

[79] In August 2012, the publishers of the series faced controversy regarding the fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A's plan to distribute titles in the series as part of a kids' meal promotion, with gay rights advocates urging the publishers to pull out of the promotion, due to the Chick-fil-A founder's controversial statements regarding same-sex marriage.

[86] Other products that have featured the Berenstain Bears include clothing, Happy Meals, cereal, chocolate, crackers, greeting cards, puzzles, embroidery kits, and notepads.

This confusion has generated multiple explanations of the memories, including an unannounced name change, time travel, or parallel universes, and has been described as an instance of the Mandela effect.

[91] A few examples of the "Berenstein" spelling have been found in references to and knockoffs of official merchandise[92] and publications,[93] and cartoons for the series used an ambiguous pronunciation which may contribute to the false memory.