Inside Outside Upside Down

By Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain

A bear explores a carton on a truck and gets carried away. By the time he has returned, the reader will be exposed to the concepts of "inside, outside, upside down."  

Bright and Early Books are perfect for beginning beginner readers! Launched by Dr. Seuss in 1968 with The Foot Book, Bright and Early Books use fewer and easier words than Beginner Books. Readers just starting to recognize words and sound out letters will love these short books with colorful illustrations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9780375983252

Stan Berenstain

Stan and Jan Berenstain were already successful cartoonists for magazines and adult humor books when they began writing children's books. The first story starring the bear family, The Big Honey Hunt, appeared in 1962. Since then, more than 250 Berenstain Bears books have been published, and more than 260 million copies have been sold. What began as an idea sparked by their young sons' interest in children's books has become over the years arguably the best-selling children's book series ever. Since their inception, the Berenstain Bears stories have expanded to include picture books, beginning readers, and chapter books—even a hit TV show on PBS. Writing and illustrating the books has become a Berenstain family affair. Mike joined with his parents as a creative team in the late 1980s. The Bear family has expanded over the years as well. Sister Bear arrived in 1974, and baby Honey joined the family in 2000. Since Stan's death at age eighty-two in 2005, Jan and Mike have continued to write and illustrate wonderful new adventures for Mama, Papa, Brother, Sister, and Honey Bear. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which looks a lot like Bear Country.

Reviews for Inside Outside Upside Down

[kimsalyers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

good book for kids

[sopoforic · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Inside Outside Upside Down is a 'Bright and Early Book for Beginning Beginners', according to the cover. It's aimed at very early readers--or, probably, children who can't read quite yet--and teaches prepositions: inside, outside, and upside down (and a few others).

The story in this one is extremely simple--it's main purpose is to teach a few words, not to tell a story. Small Bear gets in a box, the box is put on a truck by Papa Bear, the box falls off the truck, and Small Bear exits the box and goes home.

The writing is necessarily simple; some pages contain only a single word. There's lots of repetition (on three pages: "Inside a box", "Upside down", and "Inside a box/Upside down", and eventually "Going to town/On a truck/Outside/Inside a box/Upside down"), which I expect may help even those who cannot yet read to begin to learn the words.

(The remainder of this review is posted on my blog.)

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I like the shortness of this, and the regular refrain (in the title too)--it seems to fill a sparsely populated level of kids' book, giving a full narrative of a kid (Brother Bear Berenstain, who is a kid) who gets in a box and has a weird adventure and makes it home again) in just a few pages and just a few words. Most of Emmett's books seem either to be like "ball" with a picture of a ball or to have longer and much more linguistically complex stories that he likes but cannot follow with such ease, so this is welcome in that sense. Otherwise, it's ... kinda boring.

[wickedshizuku · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I can't even tell you how many times this book has been read over the last four years.
Personally I had never read this book when I was little. I had no interest, but my children would have me read it to them over and over again. It was an easy way to teach my children prepositional phrases and key sight words.

[kostonkarr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A bear explores a carton on a truck and gets carried away. By the time he has returned, the reader will be exposed to the concepts of "inside, outside, upside down." Another great preschool book i would use to teach children direction.

[crashingwaves38 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought that this was a cute little board book. It was a good book to introduce the concepts of inside and outside, rightside up and upside down, and all that. It was short and interesting, with good pictures to illustrate the concepts. All in all, the kids and I enjoyed it!

[conuly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the earlier Berenstain Bear books, and it shows. Ignore the cover, the bears on the *inside* of this book are less stylized and cutesy than the bears in the newer books, and the story is an early reader instead of a longer read-aloud.It's a cute little story about a cub and his misadventures in a box. The illustrations make it perfect :)There are only a few words per page, so this one is perfect both for early readers and for little-little ones learning to talk - the book focuses on prepositions, as you might guess from the title.

[katrinafroelich · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As a child I spent hours reading and re-reading this book. Using repetitve words and related spatial concepts, the authors create movement for the child -- who can actually imagine being inside the box. The illustrations are clear and incorporate text and symbols to give the reader clues.

[t1bclasslibrary · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The bear is inside a box, outside, and upside down on a truck going to town. He gets out, goes home, and tells Mama bear that he was “Inside, outside, upside down!” This is a good book for teaching place words and/or compound words.