Janice Berenstain Quotes

“That is not a honey bee! That was not a honey tree!”

“I think you are very clever, Dad. But your friends the bees are very mad! But Dad! You left the honey there!”

“If a bear is smart, if a bear knows how, he goes on a honey hunt. Watch me now!”

“On with the hunt! I will not rest. I will follow that bee to his honey nest!”

“You know, I think I might start biting my nails-- I could use the money!”

“I smell a smell. Wrong kind of tree! Wrong kind of tree!”

“Where you going to find the honey? Here in the water? Now that seems funny.”

“The best sort of honey never comes from bees. It comes from the store. I would like some, please.”

“The valley down there was nice to look at, but he wasn’t so sure he wanted to live there. It was so far away.”

″ ‘Will it hurt?’ asked Sister. ‘Not nearly as much as biting your tongue or bumping your shin, ” the doctor explained.

“Now we have no honey in our honey pot. Go get some honey. Go get some more. Go get some honey from the honey store.”

“Bees hide their honey in trees that are hollow. So we will find a bee to follow.”

“When a bear is smart, when a bear is clever, he never gives up. And I won’t ever!”

“This looks just like a honey tree. And ... it feels just like a honey tree. And... it goes ‘Buzz! Buzz!’ like a honey tree. And... it tastes just like a honey tree!”

″ I never saw more honey! Never! Now don’t you think your dad is clever?”

“You see, there are some kinds of medicine that you take after you get sick, and those are very useful. But this kind of shot is a special medicine that keeps you from getting sick.”

“Tomorrow.... you’ll be going to the doctor for a checkup.”

“The doctor’s waiting room was a busy, cheerful place with pictures on the walls, books to look at, and puzzles to do.”

“You’ll be leaving your friends behind. Papa and I will, too. That’s what happens when you move. But you can keep in touch with them. ”

“The best way to fight bad habits, she thought, was with good habits.”

“But when the angry bear saw how polite Papa was, he remembered his manners too.”

“A day is a long time and habits are powerful- especially bad habits.”

“But while she waited, Dr. Bearson gripped the tooth with a piece of gauze, gave a tug, and OUT IT CAME! ”

“As the movers took the Bears’ things into their new home, the Bears imagined what it would look like when it was all fixed. ”

“He wondered what it would be like to move into a new neighborhood, making new friends.”

“Was it a purple bird with green winged tips and yellow feet? Or a yellow bird with purple wing tips and green feet? Or was it a white bird with black spots like that soccer ball behind my easy chair?”

“It was the sort of day that sometimes leads to mischief.”

“And Sister nibbled her nails. Nibble, nibble, nibble, nibble.”

“Instead of just being polite, we’ll be super polite. We’ll ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ so much Mama will get fed up and call the whole thing off.”

“No matter how you hope, no matter how you try, you can’t make truth out of a lie.”

“Being a big brother is going to be fun.”

“The bear family didn’t always live in the big tree house down a sunny dirt road deep in Bear Country.”

“A habit is something you do so often you don’t even have to think about it. Habits are a very important part of our lives. And most of them are good- like brushing your teeth and combing your fur when you get up in the morning, and looking both ways before crossing the road. But some habits aren’t so good.”

“If she doesn’t wiggle it out, she can come to the dentist with us and he can yank it out!”

“She reached out with her knee and blocked the ball, which bounced against a bookshelf, against a chair, against a footstool, and into Mama’s most favorite lamp, which fell to the floor with a crash!”

“But they never, ever told a whopper because trust is one thing you can’t put back together once it’s broken.”

“Small Bear, you have outgrown your little bed”

″ ‘I don’t need checkups anymore,’ bragged Papa. ‘Because I...I... AH-CHOO! never get sick.’ ”

“And it turned out that Mama had been right: things did go more smoothly. Once they got into the good manners habit, they didn’t even have to think about it.”

″ ‘Are we going to get shots?’ he asked. ‘That’s up to...to... to.... the doctor, ’ said Papa , sneezing even bigger sneeze than before.”

″ ‘Time for your medicine, Papa!’ said the cubs, offering him a big spoonful of the gooey pink stuff that Dr. Grizzly prescribed for his cold.”

″ ‘I’ll never nibble again!’ she said as she thought of all those lovely dimes she was going to get. ”

“But worst of all, the bits of tape told the whole world that Sister Bear was a nail biter.”

“While Dr. Bearson checked Brother Bear’s teeth, Sister looked at the other tools on his work tray- there were little picks, a scraper, a tamper, and ULP!- A yanker! ”

“The cubs looked into Mama’s eyes, then at each other, and then they began to tell one of the biggest whoppers that has ever been told in Bear Country. ”

“What will happen to my little bed?”

“The bear family felt very welcome in their new neighborhood. That night they went to bed very tired, but very happy.”

“In regular school you have to concentrate- and sometimes when you concentrate, you form nervous little habits. ”

“I think you can have too much of a good thing-- you’ve got to have common sense along with manners!”

″ ‘It wasn’t a bird!’ said Sister, ‘It was a soccer ball.’ ‘And it was all my fault!’ shouted Brother. ‘It was just as much my fault!’ shouted Sister.”

“I’m not worried about the lamp. We can always get another lamp, or we can glue this one back together. What I’m sad about is the thought that maybe, just maybe, my cubs, whom I’ve always trusted, aren’t telling me the truth. And trust is not something you can put back together again.”

“The next morning, Sister plunged her hand under her pillow and found a shiny new dime where the tooth had been.”

“You get a ballon, lollipops aren’t good for your teeth.”

“There was his snug little bed with a new baby in it. Small Bear had outgrown his snug little bed just in time for his new baby sister. And now he was a big brother!”

“We will have a new baby soon who will need that little bed.”

“Mama’s plan had a list of all the rude things she wanted to stop. Besides each one was a penalty- a job or chore that went with it.

“But it didn’t work the way they expected. Mama didn’t get fed up at all. After a while Brother and Sister forgot about being super polite and were just polite.”

“Manners and courtesy are just as important away from home-- especially on the road.”

“Mama Bear wasn’t quite sure how or why it happened. But she was sure of one thing-- whatever the reason, the Bear family had become a pushing, shoving, name calling, ill mannered mess!

″ Most folks are friendly and nice and wouldn’t hurt a fly. But you have to be careful, just in case.”

“Tattling is telling just to be mean, and Sister was telling because she loves you and was worried.”

“Before they left, they told Mama where they’d be-- it was a family rule that they never went anywhere without telling Mama or Papa.”

“The reason you should never talk to a stranger and never ever take presents from a stranger and never ever go anywhere with a stranger is that it’s dangerous.”

“Brother bear was cautious and careful and a little weary of strangers. Sister, on the other hand, wasn’t the least bit wary. She was friendly to a fault. ”

“We have rules about strangers- and they’re important!”

″ ‘There’ll always be a couple bad apples in every barrel.’ That’s the way it is with strangers. Cubs have to be careful because of a few ‘bad apples’.”

″ I do hope Papa can tell Sister about strangers without making everyone scary.”

″ You know, what Papa told you was quite right. It’s not a good idea to talk to strangers or accept presents or rides from them. But, that doesn’t mean that all strangers are bad.”

″ You can’t always tell from the outside which are ‘bad apples.’ ”