Copyright © 2004 by Berenstain

Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and
Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by Random
House Children’s Books, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York, and
simultaneously in Canada by Random
House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.randomhouse.com/kids
www.berenstainbears.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data
Berenstain, Stan. The Berenstain Bears and
the Mama’s Day surprise / Stan and Jan
Berenstain. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (First time book) summary: As
Mother’s Day approaches, Papa Bear and
the cubs do their best to surprise Mama
with breakfast in bed and a gift, and
Mama does her best not to ruin the
surprise.
eISBN: 978-0-375-98762-5
[1. Mother’s Day—Fiction. 2. Surprise—
Fiction. 3. Bears—Fiction.]
I. Berenstain, Jan. II. Title.
PZ7.B4483 Beht 2004 [E]—dc21
2003000699
Random House and colophon are
registered trademarks of Random House,
Inc.
First Time Books and colophon are
registered trademarks of Berenstain
Enterprises, Inc.
v3.1
Title Page
Copyright
First Page
 Mother’s Day was coming,
and Mama Bear knew that Papa
and the cubs were going to
surprise her with a special
celebration.
 Last year they took her out
for a special Mother’s Day
dinner.
Mama was pretty sure that this
year they were going to
surprise her with a special
Mother’s Day breakfast in bed.
And alas, she also knew that
she would probably have to
spend the rest of Mother’s Day
cleaning up the mess they made
preparing her special breakfast
in bed. But that was okay. It’s
the thought that counts.
 The signs of Papa and the
cubs’ Mother’s Day plan weren’t
hard to read.
There was a marker in the
cookbook at the page for
Mama’s favorite breakfast:
Honeyed French Toast with
Blueberries.
 And one day when they were
shopping at the Beartown Mart,
she saw the cubs slip off in the
direction of the card
department.
 As Mother’s Day drew closer,
Mama knew that she had a lot
to do if her family’s Mother’s
Day surprise was going to be a
success.
 First, she had to find the old
bed tray they used when a
family member was ill. She
found it at the top of one of the
kitchen cabinets where she kept
jars and bottles that were too
nice to throw away.
It had some oatmeal on it from
when Papa had been in bed
with a cold. She scraped off the
oatmeal and put the bed tray
where she knew Papa and the
cubs could find it.
 But there was more to do.
She had to make sure they
would have the ingredients to
make her special Mother’s Day
surprise. She checked the recipe
in the cookbook.
Honeyed French Toast with
Blueberries called for honey,
bread, eggs, sweet cream, sweet
butter, powdered sugar, and
blueberries.
It was Papa and the cubs’
favorite breakfast, too. But that
was okay. It’s the thought that
counts. As for the mess they
would make in the kitchen—
well, that just came with being
a mama.
 Mama checked the cupboard.
There was honey, of course,
and plenty of bread.
 There was powdered sugar,
too. But it was all caked up like
a rock.
 They were out of eggs. But
that wouldn’t be a problem. She
could get farm-fresh eggs from
Farmer Ben. Nor would sweet
cream, sweet butter, and
powdered sugar be a problem.
She would get those at the
supermarket. But fresh
blueberries? It was much too
early in the season for
blueberries.
 The cubs were with Mama on
her next trip to the
supermarket. She didn’t want to
spoil their surprise, so she gave
them a little shopping list to
take care of while she put
sweet cream, sweet butter, and
powdered sugar into her cart.
 She also bought some extra
cleanser and scouring pads for
the big Mother’s Day clean-up.
 She looked high and low for
blueberries, but there were
none to be found. It turned out
that Gran had frozen some last
season. That took care of the
blueberries.
 Mama was also pretty sure
that a new bathrobe was going
to be part of her Mother’s Day
surprise. She caught the cubs
checking the size of her old
threadbare one. But she
pretended not to notice.
As the big day drew closer,
Mama made sure to stay out of
the way when she thought they
might be wrapping presents.
 Finally it was the night
before the morning of the big
surprise. Papa and the cubs
were doing their best not to let
on that anything the least bit
special was happening. But
their secret smiles gave them
away.
 “Now, here’s the plan,” said
Papa while Mama was off
putting baby Honey Bear to
bed. “I’m setting my wristwatch
alarm for five o’clock in the
morning. I’ll set the alarm low
so it won’t wake Mama.
 “Then I’ll slip out of bed and
come wake you two, and we’ll
sneak downstairs to the
kitchen. Now, it’s going to be
very dark, so we’ll have to be
careful not to bump into things
or we’ll wake Mama.”
 Mama pretended to be asleep
when Papa’s alarm went off.
She lay perfectly still as Papa
slipped out of bed.
 There was a certain amount
of bumping and thumping as
Papa and the cubs stumbled
around in the dark. Papa even
slipped and almost fell down
the stairs, but the cubs caught
him.
 Mama lay awake getting
ready to be surprised. But it
wasn’t easy. From the sound of
it, things didn’t seem to be
going well down in the kitchen.
The sound of an eggbeater was
to be expected. But then there
was a big clunk. What
happened?
Oh, dear. It wouldn’t be the
first time Papa dropped the
bowl while he was beating
eggs.
 And what was that burnt
smell? They must have burnt
the toast.
 Mama could just picture the
mess they were making in the
kitchen. It was all she could do
to stay in bed. But after a few
more clunks and some muffled
shouts, she slipped out of bed,
put on her old bathrobe, and
stole downstairs to sneak a look
at the kitchen.
 It was the worst kitchen mess
she had ever seen. The bowl
had broken, so there was
broken crockery and egg all
over the floor. There was burnt
toast on the drainboard and
sticky honey handprints on the
walls.
 Oh, dear, thought Mama, it’s
going to take me a week to clean
up the mess. Thank goodness
Mother’s Day comes just once a
year.
 But out of the wreckage of
broken crockery, spilled eggs,
burnt toast, and sticky honey,
Papa and the cubs had managed
to put together a beautiful
breakfast tray of Mama’s
favorites:
honeyed French toast with
blueberries, sassafras tea, and
even a small vase of red roses.
 Mama sighed. It was so
beautiful that it was almost
worth the terrible mess they
had made.
 But now they were coming
out of the kitchen and heading
for the stairs. Mama had to get
out of there or the whole
surprise would be ruined.
She scurried up the stairs and
climbed back into bed.
 She pretended to be just
waking up when they came into
the room with her breakfast
tray.
 “Happy Mother’s Day!” said
Brother and Sister.
“Happy Mother’s Day, my
dear,” said Papa as he placed
the tray on the bed and
plumped the pillow behind
Mama’s back.
 “Mother’s Day?” said Mama.
“Well, I suppose it is! How
lovely! All my favorites:
honeyed French toast with
blueberries and sassafras tea
and these beautiful roses. And
look! Just what I needed!” she
said as she unwrapped the new
bathrobe.
 “This is absolutely delicious!”
said Mama as she ate her
French toast and sipped her
sassafras tea. “I don’t know
how to thank you.”
Just then they heard baby
Honey Bear’s cry of “Mama!
Mama!”
 “I’d better get Honey Bear up
and give her breakfast,” said
Mama.
“No,” said Papa. “This is
Mother’s Day. You just stay in
bed and read your cards. The
cubs and I will take care of
everything.”
And they did.
 When Mama got downstairs
to go to work on the kitchen,
she got a real surprise. It was
the cleanest, shiniest, spick-and-
spannest kitchen she had ever
seen.
 “Well,” said Sister, “how did
you like your Mama’s Day
surprise?”
“Yes,” said Brother. “How did
you like it?” Honey Bear
gurgled and Papa beamed.
 “How did I like it?” she said.
“It was the most wonderful
surprise any mama ever had!”
 Then she gave her cubs a
great big Mama Bear hug.