Synopsis
When a teddy bear is lost by the child who loves him, the bear begins an amazing journey to get back home again. From swimming in the ocean with the fish, to flying in the sky with the gulls, to being found by a sailor, and then being carried off by the wind, the bear meets new friends and travels to many places he never dreamed of.
Reminiscent of such classics as The Velveteen Rabbit and the award-winning Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, this tender picture book with beautiful seaside imagery will capture readers’ hearts with the bear’s summer adventure as he gets back home where he belongs.
Also available by Susan Meyers
Praise for Puppies! Puppies! Puppies!
[STAR] “The rhyme shows the simplicity Meyers employs in a text so well structured that almost any adult (or new reader) can prance through with natural, bouncy enthusiasm.” —Booklist, starred review
Also available by Amy Bates
Praise for The Dog Who Belonged to No One
[STAR] “The pencil and watercolor illustrations, featuring a palette of golden earth tones, echo the gentle sentiment of the narrative.” —School Library Journal, starred review
[STAR] “Careful parallel storytelling and beautifully paced page turns allow both text and illustrations to develop the characters, establishing both worth and loneliness.” —Kirkus, starred review
Publishers Weekly
The stuffed animal carried away on a long, unexpected journey is a perennially popular theme; here, it’s illustrated with delightful attention to period detail by Bates (The Dog Who Belonged to No One). The baby who owns the unfortunate teddy bear is accompanied by a young mother in wellies, a polka-dot skirt, and a snug cloche hat for their boardwalk stroll at some pre-WWII seaside resort town. Bates works in roughly sketched pencil and soft, lustrously shaded watercolors, evoking a lost, gentler age. Meyers’s (Puppies! Puppies! Puppies!) verse is sturdy, obedient to its metric structure: “This is the dog that found the bear,/ Shook it and tossed it high in the air,/ Carried it down to the sandy shore,/ Trotted away with the ribbon it wore.” Bates honors each person, creature, or force of nature the bear encounters (from sailor to seal to sea breeze) in stately picture frames that appear at the start of each leg of the bear’s journey under the sea, up into the sky, and eventually—to readers’ relief—into a neighbor’s yard to be rescued by its owner. Ages 4-8. (May)