The Berenstain Bears' Nature Rescue Read online

  ZONDERKIDZ

  The Berenstain Bears’ Nature Rescue

  Copyright © 2020 by Berenstain Publishing, LLC

  Illustrations © by 2020 Berenstain Publishing, LLC

  Portions of this book were previously published with the title The Berenstain Bears and the Showdown at Chainsaw Gap copyright © 1995 by Berenstain Enterprises, Inc.

  Requests for information should be addressed to:

  Zonderkidz, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Berenstain, Stan, 1923–2005, author. | Berenstain, Jan, 1923–2012, author. | Berenstain, Mike, 1951-author.

  Title: The Berenstain Bears’ nature rescue / by Stan and Jan Berenstain; with Mike Berenstain.

  Other titles: Berenstain Bears and the showdown at Chainsaw Gap.

  Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zonderkidz, [2020] | Audience: Ages 6–10. | Summary: When Brother’s class studies birds, the citizens of Bear Country end up choosing sides in a battle between environmentalists and those who want to cut down the trees in Birder’s Woods to build houses.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019044516 (print) | LCCN 2019044517 (ebook) | ISBN 9780310768043 (paperback) | ISBN 9780310768074 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780310768050 (epub) | ISBN 9780310768081

  Subjects: CYAC: Birds—Fiction. | Environmental protection—Fiction. | School field trips—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Bears—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.B4483 Bew 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.B4483 (ebook) | DDC [E]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044516

  LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044517

  Epub Edition December 2019 9780310768050

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan.

  Art direction: Cindy Davis

  Interior design: Denise Froehlich

  Printed in the United States of America

  20 21 22 23 / LSC / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  The Berenstain Bears® and the Rowdy Crowd Chapter 1

  SAVE THE YELLOW POPINJAY!

  That’s what all the cubs are saying about Bear Country’s endangered bird. If Squire Grizzly gets his way and cuts down the trees in Birder’s Woods, the popinjay will have nowhere to nest. Then it could disappear forever. It’s up to the cubs to save it—before it’s too late!

  1

  The citizens of Bear Country usually got along very well with each other. They did have their differences, of course. Dogs barking and running loose sometimes caused arguments. When there were minor traffic accidents, folks might shout at each other until Officer Marguerite showed up. And the question of who owned the meadow between Squire Grizzly’s estate and Farmer Ben’s farm was the cause of trouble every now and then. But these kinds of problems were usually worked out without too much fuss.

  How could it have happened, then, that Bear Country’s peaceful, friendly citizens almost went to war with each other—neighbor against neighbor, husband against wife, cub against parent, boyfriend against girlfriend? All because of a creature that hatched from an egg not much bigger than a thimble—a creature that didn’t weigh much more than a potato chip and that hardly anyone had ever heard of.

  Sometimes trouble happens when things that don’t seem to have anything to do with each other turn out to have a lot to do with each other. In this case those things were a school assignment, a junkyard, and a big business deal.

  It was a near thing, that almost war. And it came to be known as

  2

  “Bertha, would you pass these out, please?”

  Teacher Bob handed Bertha Broom a stack of papers. “These are guides for a new study unit,” he said as Bertha passed the papers out to the class. “I’m trying a new teaching approach with this unit, and I’m very excited about it. We’re going to take one subject and study every aspect of it before going on to something else. There will be classroom work and homework as usual. But there will also be special assignments. We might even have field studies and class trips.”

  What’s the subject of this exciting new study unit? wondered the cubs. They took their guides from Bertha and looked eagerly at the heading. The subject was . . . birds.

  Ferdy Factual and Trudy Brunowitz read their guides with great interest. But no one else read past the heading.

  “Birds?” said Barry Bruin. He made a face and looked around at his classmates.

  “Why birds?” said Bonnie Brown.

  “What do birds have to do with anything?” moaned Queenie McBear.

  “Why can’t we have a unit on something interesting—like dinosaurs?” said Brother Bear.

  “Or space flight?” said Cousin Fred.

  “Or poetry?” said Babs Bruno.

  “Boy!” said Barry. “When Teacher Bob lays an egg, it’s a lulu!”

  Too-Tall Grizzly and his gang always made fun of new study units. They usually did it just to annoy Teacher Bob. But this time they really looked upset.

  “Birds!?” said Too-Tall. “Say it ain’t so, Teach!”

  The whole class groaned and moaned until WHAP! Teacher Bob’s yardstick came down hard across his desk to get everyone’s attention.

  “Quiet down, class,” he said. “We’ve still got some time before recess, so let me try to make a point. You may grouse about this unit. But if any of you turkeys tries to chicken out of or duck this assignment, you’ll wind up eating crow.”

  Teacher Bob ended his speech with a big smile. It was the smile of someone proud of a great joke he’s just made. But no one else seemed to know what the joke was.

  No one except Ferdy Factual, that is. He stood and addressed the class. “Don’t you get it? By using the names of five kinds of birds in a sentence, Teacher Bob has made an excellent point: that birds are an important part of our everyday lives!”

  “Sit down, Ferdy,” said Queenie.

  “Without birds, our species would not survive,” continued Ferdy. “Birds protect our food supply by eating millions of insect pests. And they do the necessary job of spreading plant seeds in their droppings . . .”

  “If you don’t pipe down, you little nerd,” growled Too-Tall from the back of the room, “I’m going to drop you!”

  “All right, Too-Tall, that’s enough,” said Teacher Bob. “What Ferdy has said is right, class. Birds are important. But what’s more important for all of you to realize right now is that we’re going to study birds no matter how much you complain. So you all better start developing a positive attitude about it. Instead of moaning, why not think of ways to help make our project a more interesting one for the class? Any ideas?”

  The cubs were quiet for a while. Then Cousin Fred raised his hand. “I could bring in my colle
ction of birds’ nests,” he said.

  “Excellent,” said Teacher Bob. “Anyone else? Brother Bear?”

  “Sister’s got a neat collection of feathers,” said Brother. “I could probably borrow it.”

  As the class discussed ideas for the project, Brother had a thought. Why not use the new study unit as a way to spend some extra time with Bonnie Brown? Quickly he wrote a note to Bonnie and passed it down his row.

  Bonnie unfolded the note, but before she could read it she heard Teacher Bob clear his throat loudly—“Ahem!” She looked up. Teacher Bob was staring straight at her. She knew he didn’t approve of note passing in class.

  “Why not share it with the whole class?” said Teacher Bob, taking the note from Bonnie. “After all, we’re trying to work as a team on this new study unit.”

  Brother blushed as Teacher Bob read the note to himself.

  “Hmm,” said Teacher Bob. “It’s from Brother Bear.”

  There were snickers from Too-Tall and the gang. Brother blushed harder.

  “Brother suggests a bird walk in Birder’s Woods this Saturday,” said Teacher Bob.

  Too-Tall and the gang made smooching noises. A few of the other cubs joined in. Brother blushed so hard his ears seemed to burn.

  “Actually, that’s a great suggestion for the whole class,” said Teacher Bob. “It’s a terrific way to kick off our new study unit. Thank you, Brother.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Brother muttered under his breath.

  “I have a suggestion too,” said Ferdy. “How about a class trip to my Uncle Actual Factual’s museum at the Bearsonian Institution? It has a great Hall of Birds.”

  Already the class’s attitude was improving. A walk in Birder’s Woods and a trip to the Hall of Birds sounded pretty good.

  But not to Too-Tall and his gang.

  “Hey, boss,” said Skuzz. “Want me to shut the little bird lover up?”

  “Maybe later in the schoolyard,” said Too-Tall. “If we nail him here, Teach’ll just send us to Grizzmeyer’s office, and I can’t afford another suspension anytime soon. My dad’s still on the warpath from the last time.”

  The recess bell rang.

  “Good,” said Too-Tall. “I’ve never needed recess so bad in my life!”

  As the cubs headed for the schoolyard, Barry Bruin hurried down the hallway to catch up to Babs Bruno. Babs had both hands full of blackboard erasers. It was her job that day to clean the erasers outside during recess.

  “Hey, Babs,” said Barry. “I’ve got a bird poem for you.

  Roses are red,

  Violets are blue.

  Storks have bird legs,

  And so do you!”

  Barry ran on ahead of Babs. But he wasn’t fast enough to escape the erasers she threw at him. Clouds of chalk dust rose as they bonked off his head.

  3

  Out in the schoolyard, Queenie McBear walked up to Too-Tall and winked at him. Too-Tall was a little surprised, because Queenie had been ignoring him lately.

  “I expect to see you on that bird walk on Saturday,” said Queenie.

  Hmm, thought Too-Tall. Looks like our on-again, off-again thing is on again. That would make the bird walk a bit less painful. But he didn’t want his gang to know he felt that way.

  “Gimme a break, Queenie,” he said. “I got better things to do on a Saturday morning than hang around with a bunch of stupid, boring birds.”

  “I couldn’t help overhearing that remark,” said Ferdy Factual, who was standing nearby with Trudy Brunowitz. “If you mean to say that birds lack value as a subject of study, then you are even lower on the bell curve of intelligence than I thought.”

  Too-Tall wasn’t absolutely sure he’d been insulted or not. He looked at Queenie.

  “He means you’re dimmer than he thought you were,” she said.

  Too-Tall glared at Ferdy. “I don’t know anything about bell curves,” he said. “But I do know how to make you hear bells—with this!” He raised one of his big fists and pushed it at Ferdy’s face until it was almost touching his nose.

  “Leave him alone!” said Trudy.

  But Ferdy didn’t seem to want any help. He looked Too-Tall right in the fist and said calmly, “I think it’s only fair to warn you that Mr. Grizzmeyer is watching you from his office window.”

  “Nice try,” said Too-Tall. “But you’re not gonna fool me with that old trick.”

  “Back off, big guy,” said Queenie. “Mr. G is watching you from his office window. And if you get suspended again, your dad will ground you for the rest of the century. And if that happens you won’t be able to take me to the big dance. And if you don’t take me to the big dance, you and I are finished . . . through . . . splitsville!”

  Too-Tall’s angry frown turned into a grin.

  “Hey, what’s the problem?” he said. “I was just showing my little buddy here this swollen knuckle.”

  “How did you get it?” asked Ferdy. “Punching your way out of a paper bag?”

  “Don’t push your luck, buster,” said Too-Tall. He put his big arm around Ferdy’s narrow shoulders and sneaked a peek at the office window. Mr. G was gone. Too-Tall raised his fist again.

  “Are you gonna pop him, boss?” asked Skuzz eagerly.

  “Nah,” said Too-Tall. “I’m gonna let him go.”

  “You’re gonna what?” said Smirk.

  “You heard me, birdbrain,” said Too-Tall. “I’m gonna let him go . . . if he admits that birds are boring and stupid. Go ahead, Ferdy, say it. Birds are boring and stupid. Say it!”

  “I won’t say it,” said Ferdy bravely. “Because it isn’t true. Birds are neither boring nor stupid. In fact, they are some of the most wonderful and interesting creatures on earth. The tiny cliff swallow, for example, flies seven thousand miles between its summer and winter homes. The black-capped chickadee, with a brain even smaller than yours, can remember exactly where it found food the year before . . .”

  “You gotta pop him now, boss!” said Vinnie.

  Too-Tall needed no coaxing. Smiling wickedly, he drew back his mighty fist . . .

  Just then there came a sudden shrill blast from a whistle. Too-Tall turned to see Mr. Grizzmeyer frowning at him from the front steps of the school building.

  Instantly, Too-Tall opened his fist. He patted Ferdy on the shoulder. “A brain smaller than mine?” he said with a sweet smile. “How interesting!”

  4

  Across town from Bear Country School, the phone was ringing in the office of Too-Tall’s dad, Two-Ton Grizzly. Two-Ton answered it.

  “Hello, Parts R Us,” he said. “If we ain’t got it, we’ll get it. Two-Ton speakin’. Cotter pins? Sure, we got cotter pins. Come on out. We’re on the main road just past Birder’s Woods, before you get to Buzzard Flats. You can’t miss it.”

  Two-Ton was right. No one could have missed his place of business. It covered acres and acres of land. At the entrance was a huge sign that said: PARTS R US. IF WE AIN’T GOT IT, WE’LL GET IT! From one end of the vast lot to the other lay piles of auto parts and wrecks of cars and trucks. Every day, folks came from miles around to look for fenders, bumpers, wheels, and other parts for all kinds of cars and trucks.

  But it wasn’t only the size of Two-Tall’s business that caught folks’ attention. His office was one of the most unusual around. It was a huge truck cab resting on piles of railroad ties. Two-Ton liked to sit in the office high above the wrecks and piles of parts and look out over the great stretch of land beyond. He especially enjoyed watching the buzzards soar and circle in the sky.

  Two-Ton had always thought of that land out there as his own space. And he needed space—lots of it. He wore a size “extra large” and he didn’t like being crowded.

  Behind Two-Ton’s office was the family home, which was even stranger. It looked as if it were made of truck bodies welded together. That’s because it was made of truck bodies welded together.

  At first Two-Ton and his wife had lived in a single truck trailer
. Then, as the family grew, they added to their home. They added a bread truck when Too-Tall’s older sister was born, then a U-Haul van when Too-Tall came along. Later, when business got better, they added another truck trailer.

  The Grizzly’s family home may have been unusual, but it was no more unusual than the family itself. Too-Tall, of course, was known to all as the cub who held the record for times suspended from Bear Country School. His big sister, Too-Much, was a truck driver. And Two-Ton himself was the strongest bear in Beartown—strong enough to carry a whole truck engine on his shoulder.

  But the most surprising member of the family was Two-Ton’s wife, Too-Too. She was tiny compared with the rest of her family, but she was very much in charge of things.

  Two-Ton’s office phone rang again. “Hello, Parts R Us,” said Two-Ton. “If we ain’t got it, we’ll get it. Hubcaps? Got loads of hubcaps. We’re on the main road between Birder’s Woods and Buzzard Flats. You can’t miss it.”

  Just then something happened that Two-Ton couldn’t miss. As he looked out over the stretch of land beyond Parts R Us, a truck turned off the main road and drove out onto Buzzard Flats. The driver and a helper took some posts and a sign from the back of the truck. They drove the posts into the ground and nailed the sign to them. Then they backed the truck out of Buzzard Flats and came rolling down the road toward Parts R Us.

  As the truck passed Two-Ton’s office he could clearly read the words printed on the side. They said BEARTOWN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY.

  Two-Ton frowned. He didn’t like the looks of this.

  He climbed down from his office, walked between the wrecks and piles of parts, and headed out into Buzzard Flats to look at the sign. When he reached it, his heart sank.

  The sign said:

  5

  Back on the other side of town, Brother and Sister Bear were just getting home from school.