Linnea's Illuminated Notes

2011/11/11

Teddy Bear Stories

On a November day in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear in Mississippi. A cartoon about the incident appeared in The Washington Post. Brooklyn, New York shop owners made a handmade bear and put it in their storefront window with the sign: “Teddy’s bear.” And, as they say, history was made.

Bear Books:

FAMOUS BEARS & FRIENDS, WRITTEN AND COLLECTED by Janet Wyman Coleman (Dutton, 2002).

WINNIE-THE-POOH (80^th Anniversary Ed.) by A. A. Milne, pictures by Ernest Shepard (Dutton, 2006).

CORDUROY, story and pictures by Don Freeman (Viking Press, 1968).

A BEAR CALLED PADDINGTON (50^th Anniversary Ed.), story and pictures by Michael Bond (Houghton Mifflin, 2008).

BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, WHAT DO YOU SEE? by Bill Martin Jr., pictures by Eric Carle (Henry Holt, 1967).

OLD BEAR, story and pictures by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow, 2008).

THE TEDDY BEAR, story and pictures by David McPhail (Henry Holt, 2002).

WHAT ABOUT BEAR?, story and pictures by Suzanne Bloom (Boyds Mills press, 2010).

HUMPHREY’S BEAR by Jan Wahl, pictures by William Joyce (Henry Holt, 1987).

JESSE BEAR, WHAT WILL YOU WEAR? by Nancy White Carlstrom, pictures by Bruce Degen (Aladdin, 1996).

JAMBERRY, story and pictures by Bruce Degen (HarperCollins, 1983).

THE TEDDY BEARS’ PICNIC by Jimmy Kennedy, pictures by Alexandra Day (Green Tiger Press, 1983).

Educator Corner:

THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR: THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE CRUSADE FOR AMERICA by Douglas Brinkley (HarperCollins, 2009).

LITTLE CORNER ACTIVITY:

Read Teddy Bears’ Picnic.
Learn to sing “Teddy Bears’ Picnic.”
Assist children in planning a “teddy bears picnic day” and hold an elaborate or simple picnic day.
Children can make teddy bear masks to wear to the picnic.
A huge, newsprint-size map to the picnic area can be drawn by everyone on the floor.
Select games to play and gather needed balls or other equipment.
Children can make small sandwiches and cupcakes.
Each child can bring a favorite teddy bear and/or stuffed animal to school for the day and/or to the outdoor picnic site.
Children can serve sandwiches and pour drinks to share with their teddy bears.
Sing “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” while having a teddy bear parade around the picnic grounds.
Illustrate the teddy bears picnic day in artwork.
All can have a teddy bear nap time.

2011/11/08

Story Map: Edge and Hope

In a conversation about books, I heard of a school librarian in a large American city who choses books that won’t draw complaints. With budgets being cut, she feels it is better to have books on school library shelves rather than spending her limited dollars on a book that then, must be removed because of an objection. The result is a “safer,” conflict-free world for school children readers. The thought being that the children will, at least, have books to read.

This library is opposed to the world the children are living in. Where are children going to find the book in order to read about themselves? Where are children going to find the book to ease their own struggle in real life? Where are children going to find the book that changes them into lifelong readers?

Katherine Paterson writes in The Invisible Child about children finding themselves in books. She discusses the idea that story characters need some internal struggle to reach readers in difficult situations. To satisfy the invisible child looking for identification, confirmation that he or she is not alone in the world. The invisible child being that one hidden from the surface glance that schools and acquaintances, or even, friends and family usually see on a daily basis.

What should a writer write today? The old wisdom is that you write the story that wants to be written. As writers, should we see the children around us today and write the story that needs to be written? How far should we push our characters? Should childhood in general be ratcheted up for an attention-grabbing narrative? If we consider Katherine Paterson’s book of essays, a small push may best meet that need for readers.

Write characters with an edge, not completely lost, but with a reason for hope. Give children some relief from the demanding, destructive world developing all around as society wrestles with a change. Comfort the invisible child, write for this child. Write with an edge and hope that is grounded somewhere in real life. Write for the child inside all of us and it will be chosen by a story-buying world still trying to find itself.

THE INVISIBLE CHILD: ON READING AND WRITING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN by Katherine Paterson (Dutton, 2001).