Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

From School Library Journal PreSchool-Grade 2-Thirteen cheerful poems about a subject that has enormous child appeal. All are bouncy and readable, as in these lines from "Teddy Bear Store": "Miles of bears. Piles of bears./Care for a bear? Just choose." Children will recognize many of the situations: scrubbing a stuffed animal clean, piling teddy bears into seats on a make-believe bus, dressing up a special bear, and, of course, loving one: "Wrinkles, lumps,/patches, creases-/Barely Bear's/been loved to pieces." Griffith's joyful full-color paintings capture the essence of each selection; in addition, one develops a small visual story that perceptive children will notice. A cat, for example, covers its eyes as the bears slide down a banister; a chair is knocked over and abandoned after it pounces; a handy teddy bear sews up his own middle seam. The art is detailed and clever, and complements the poems well. Children will see themselves and their precious stuffed-animal friends reflected in these pages.