The literary world mourned the passing of Jan Berenstain this year, but a new book trailer (video embedded above) features the co-creator of the Berenstain Bears talking about a new book.

After listening to some advice from their then-editor Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss), the husband-and-wife writing duo Stan and Jan Berenstain wrote a picture book about penguins. The manuscript for Nothing Ever Happens in the South Pole was “put on the back burner” for decades, but HarperCollins released it this year to celebrate The Berenstain Bears‘ 50th anniversary.

The video features Jan and her son Mike Berenstain (who helped to illustrate the project) discussing the book.

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Would you pay $1,000 for a handwritten Dr. Seuss book? That’s the current bid for a long lost Dr. Seuss manuscript up for auction at Nate D. Sanders. The collection is pictured above, via the auction site (click to enlarge).

The manuscript began almost forty years ago. The rhyme master wrote the first seven pages of the 19-page manuscript and an assistant completed the job. You can see Seuss’ corrections throughout the remainder of the manuscript. The story focuses on athletics: “All Sorts of Sports. Shall I play checkers? golf? croquet? There are so many games there are to play.”

The manuscript comes with a typed letter signed “Ted” (his full name is Theodor Seuss Geisel). Dated July 11, 1983, the letter reads: “What, in my opinion, is wrong with this story is that … despite the greatness of Pete as a stellar athlete hero … the negative image of him flubbing and unable to catch any ball at all will make him schnook. This is not entirely apparent in the text, but when you picture these negative scenes in illustrations, you will find that negatives are always more memorable than positives. And I think the reader’s reaction will be, ‘What’s the matter with this dope?’”

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