Jan fashioned a pair of wedding rings from spare aluminum collected at the latter job, and the two married on April 17, 1946.

In an interview about the books, the Berenstains said that a big reason behind their inspiration was some of the difficulties parents faced, as well as some childhood tribulations when they were kids themselves.

The Berenstains also noted there were some issues which seemed to appear in every generation, such as kids throwing tantrums in public places, which made important subject matter for their stories.

In their later years, critics sometimes dismissed the books for having social attitudes stuck in the 1950s along with the bears' clothing styles and penchant for activities such as playing jacks and hopscotch, even though they did change with the times somewhat by introducing things like video games and cell phones.

In 1951, the couple published Berenstains' Baby Book, which dealt with the issues of pregnancy and child-rearing.

[5] At the time, their inspiration, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), was working as an editor in the children's division of Random House Publishing and eagerly approved the concept.