By Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain
The one that explains where the famous tree house came from — the Bear family's own moving day, back when they lived in a cave up the mountain.
Before the tree house, the Bears lived in a cave on Great Bear Mountain, and they were happy there. Mama had her vegetable patch, Papa had his woodworking, and Brother had his rocks, his hikes, and his friends. Then Papa decides it's time to go down to the valley where there's more land and more trees. Brother is not sold. He likes his cave, he likes his friends, and he has no idea who's going to be at the other end. The truck gets loaded, he takes one last look at the cave, and they drive down the mountain waving. The tree house they pull up to is a wreck: peeling paint, broken steps, bark hanging loose. Then the neighbors come running with carrot stew and honeycombs and seeds and nuts, and there are cubs, and one of them is going to be a friend. They go to bed tired and happy, and they fix the place up until it's perfect.
This is the least frightening moving book on the shelf, and it's the one for a child who mostly needs proof that the other end exists. Brother's worry is named and taken seriously for exactly as long as a small child can hold it, and then the book answers it with a crowd of neighbors bringing food. Better still, your child probably already knows this family. Watching a series they trust go through a move makes the whole thing ordinary, which is most of what a three-year-old needs. And the tree house being a mess at first is useful, since it says out loud that a new home can look wrong on day one and still turn out right.