Please Don't Feed the Bears

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please Don't Feed the Bears is a short story written by R.L. Stine and published in Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps.

[edit] Plot Summary

Sarah is mad because her parents are making her spend the Halloween weekend at Cuddle Bear Land, a teddy bear themed amusement park, instead of going to Monster Mansion. This is because of her bratty five year-old sister Katie, who her parents call Princess. They are going to Cuddle Bear Land because Princess hates anything scary. What's worse, her parents won't let her get a souvenir stuffed Cuddle Bear.

Once they arrive, Sarah is immediatley put off by how cute and babyish the entire park is. All the attendants dress up in realistic Cuddle Bear outfits, and nearly all the rides are for babies. Except for the Roarin' Roller Coaster, which her parents let her go on by herself if she meets them back at the Hibernation Rest Center by 1:30.

After going on the ride five times, Sarah decides to head back to the Rest Center, but she gets lost and winds up going in a circle back to the Roarin' Roller Coaster. Sarah then finds herself at the Cave, the employee lounge. Inside, one of the Cuddle Bear attendants, named Kira, gives Sarah a personalized hat and offers her some Honey Crackers, honey graham crackers that "everyone in Cuddle Bear Land eats". When Sarah eats a few of them, she notices something startling. Her hands have brown fur growing on them, and she has a bear nose! That's when she realizes that the attendants don't just dress up as Cuddle Bears, they are Cuddle Bears!

When Sarah flees from the cave, she manages to find the Rest Center, and is relieved to find that she is back to normal. When her family leaves Cuddle Bear Land, Sarah finds that Katie sneaked a bag of Honey Crackers into her backpack and decides to have a doctor analyze them when they get back. The next night, Sarah finds Princess inside her room and brags that she found the bag of crackers and ate the entire thing. This is when Sarah realizes that she did get a souvenir Cuddle Bear. And she's so sweet Sarah's going to name her Princess.

[edit] Goofs

  • Early in the story, Sarah laments that she can't go to Monster Mansion. But in the end, she refers to it as Midnight Mansion.

[edit] Trivia