Jan Berenstain has passed away

"Once you've bought the book, catchily entitled Cocky-Locky Bakes Some Cookie-Lookies, and taken it home, what then?  Should you just hand it to him and say, "Here's a quarter book I brung ya"? Definitely not!  Hold on to it.  It's money in the bank.  Keep it under wraps until, in the normal course of events, a crisis arises.  Then say, in your most casual manner, "If you don't stop eating the leaves off Mommy's nice philodendron, I won't give you the pretty new book I bought you."  If you manage just the proper tone, he'll stop.  He might even spit out what he has in his mouth.  You then have him--and philodendron pulp--in the palm of your hand."

--from "First Books," by Stanley and Janice Berenstain, in The Family Book of Humor