Review: The Magic of a Teddy Bear
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 24, 2011
For anyone young or old, who has (or had) a lovable teddy bear, Phillip Laird has written a beautiful and charming story about the special relationship between a stuffed bear and his friend, a young girl.  They share a special loving relationship despite the lack of love in their household.  They dance, snuggle, and play games together. The little girl is his Princess and he is her Solomon Bear.But when the little girl runs away, Solomon questions their bond and tries to figure out if the love they share is worth saving. After some advice given to him by the moon, Solomon learns about courage, beauty, love, and strength from other toys before finally venturing "outside" to search for his Princess.At about 50 pages with no illustrations, there are some really beautiful passages in Mr. Laird's writing. In fact, it's very poetic and I found myself rereading some of them out loud and imagining how wonderful they'd probably sound to a young audience at story or bedtime. Here are a few of my favorites.One from the very beginning of the story:"There was once a House that stood alone, on the edge of a vast and magical forest. And in this House so very far from all the others, there lied a lonely family, one that had almost quite forgotten the magic of loving. Why, in this House, even the toys themselves were falling under the spell of the Forgetting. There were but two who held to their promise never to forget the magic: a Girl and her Teddy Bear."And another from later in the first chapter:"When so many new toys needed batteries, cables, or winding up to keep them going, for Solomon Bear, just the Girl's hugs remained enough. All he knew was that when she held him, thee was nowhere else he would rather be. All uncertainty about who he was would melt away, and everything would become bright and clear and beautiful again for him, when he remembered that loving her was his greatest reason for being."At times some of the writing is very dreamy and over romanticized, oozing with hugs and love. But afterall, what is a teddy bear for, right?  Kids will certainly enjoy the fantasy and pretend, the valuable life lessons, and the love that can be found in The Story of Solomon Bear.