The Teddy Bear
This sweet if romanticized tale of a homeless man who adopts a  lost teddy bear, and the generous young owner who lets him keep  it, is graced with some of McPhail's (Mole Music) tenderest art  to date. Left behind at a diner, a small boy's beloved bear is  accidentally thrown out: "He lay squashed in a dark, smelly  place, and even though he had a fine fur coat he was beginning  to get a chill." Rescued from the trash by a homeless man, the  bear, like the boy, is lonely at first, but eventually both  adjust ("The bear still felt loved"). At the park one day the  bear is left briefly on a bench, where he is spotted by none  other than his original owner. Delighted to be reunited with his  old friend, the boy nevertheless notices the homeless man's  despair and willingly gives him the bear. While the thought of  any child happily relinquishing a favorite toy is a bit of a  stretch, as a parable of compassion the story makes its point  gently, and McPhail's glowing illustrations persuade the  audience of its emotional truth. A master of wordless subtext  (the man is shown sleeping under a narrow patch of sky in an  open dumpster; on the facing page, the boy, surrounded by other  toys, stares at the same sky from his bedroom), he invests his  pen-and-watercolor illustrations with affection and warmth, and  his expert use of soft shading and cross-hatching creates a  welcoming world readers will want to inhabit. Ages 4-8. (May)Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.