A newly discovered children’s book by Stan and Jan Berenstain, featuring their beloved bear characters, is coming later this year.
Random House Books for Young Readers will publish Too Loose, Too Tight, Just Right in the fall, the press announced in a news release. It calls the book “a must-have for Berenstain Bears enthusiasts and collectors alike.”
In 1962 Stan and Jan Berenstain launched their wildly popular Berenstain Bears series (and yes, that’s how it’s spelled), which follows a family of anthropomorphic grizzlies, with The Big Honey Hunt. More than 400 books followed, the most recent of them written and illustrated by their son Mike Berenstain, who took over the franchise after his parents’ deaths.
Mike Berenstain found the manuscript for Too Loose, Too Tight, Just Right in 2020 while going through an old file cabinet, and he later revised and illustrated the story.
“What was most interesting to me was how good Too Loose, Too Tight, Just Right was,” he said in a statement. “It was funny, clever, educational, and entertaining, a classic children’s book that had been conceived, created, then completely forgotten for over fifty years. I decided it deserved to be developed and published as a brand-new book. I hope this fully realized blast from the Berenstain Bears past will be of interest to all true bear lovers, and that everyone will enjoy the fun and humor of Stan and Jan’s classic work as much as I do."
Too Loose, Too Tight, Just Right is slated for publication on Oct. 6.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
