Pocket Bear has a style and spirit that will easily tap into kids in early elementary school. Those kids who are already reading will feel accomplished because of its short chapters. The slightly older kids, say those in third through fifth grade will feel encouraged that they’re able to read a real book. By ‘real book’ they’ll mean a chapter book with very few, if any, illustrations. Everyone, even you adults who might read Pocket Bear aloud to young audiences, will quickly fall prey to its cuteness and the age-appropriate action.
It was when Pocket Bear was approaching its climax that I thumbed forward a dozen or so pages. I’m fast-forwarding through an early-elementary, children’s chapter book, not so that I could finish it quicker, but to find out what happens to the characters. To be fair, my patience and sense of control has never been something to brag about. That is just part of the reason why we never, ever have doughnuts in the house and are thankful the Cadbury Crème Eggs aren’t for sale year-round.
The presentation of Pocket Bear is more than half of the reason why young readers will be helpless to its charm. Its chapters are short. The longest chapter is just shy of five pages, and these are small pages. Pocket Bear measures 5.5” by 7.5”. It’s an easy book to carry for any sized hands and is even more fun to read. Its presentation has as much in common with a journal, as it does with an early chapter book meant for elementary school aged kids.
Take the go-to young child fantasy of your toys coming to life. They each have distinct personalities and jobs that they do once they come to life. Add a hierarchy to it with one toy being the leader of them. So, it’s basically Toy Story? Kids know this story so what? Kids know the fantasy of their toys coming to life and have seen the film, yes. Pocket Bear adds a toy-centric thrift store and a cat named Zephyrina, whose curiosity and overall feline behavior acts as the book’s river.
When it’s needed, she’s the narrator of the book and chief storyteller of the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasure. Second Chances is a local thrift store that concentrates on toys. The front window has an area where the new toys are placed in case any local kids lose them. Those toys are given a three-day waiting period in which kids can claim them. In their years of operation, only one toy has ever been claimed. Zephyrina is the toy locator. She roams the area looking for toys or dolls that she can carry in her mouth.
One night behind an Italian restaurant, she’s digging through an especially deep and smelly trash can when she feels a soft bear. It’s just within her reach, but she has contort her arm and extend her claws as far as possible. Her claw machine pulls up a teddy bear, but one unlike any that she’s seen before. Its limbs are longer and the overall appearance is more realistic. The other toys start calling him “Spaghetti” due to what he was covered in when Corporal Z found him. As Pocket Bear evolves and they learn a little bit about his history, they start calling him “Bearwon”.
The mother-daughter team that oversee Second Chances take pride in the toys. The latter of them even creates a biography of the found toys for people who might know where they came from. Her mother deals with the day-to-day issues like running the storefront and dealing with customers, toy collectors and museums. Early on in the story we meet the neighborhood toy picker who scavenges the region looking for undervalued finds and an earnest curator at toy museum. My literature class would hopefully see the foreshadowing happening in the book.
The toys are curious and start researching Bearwons ‘becoming’. The ‘becoming’ is a toy’s first memory. It’s how they were made and what they first saw once their parts were assembled. They’re aware that they’re a toy, but are also cognizant of the higher purpose that they have. Everyone realizes that Bearwon is a very old bear. Pocket Bear is old too. He’s been around since WWI and was created to go into battle with soldiers. Pocket is always looking up, frozen in an erstwhile state of endearing. The two share a deeper connection, other than the obvious one being their bear facts.
Pocket Bear is a smart, well-paced, early reader chapter book that brims with life. Elementary school readers will know its author, Katherine Applegate, from The One and Only Ivan. This is the book that they read in fourth or fifth grade, probably under duress, but secretly loved every minute of it. Of course, they’ll never tell their friends this fact. This is a book that skews just a little below the reading level of her more well-known release. However, its craft, love, attention to detail and ability to conjure warm feelings from those who need to be reminded that they have them is just as, if not more effective here.
Pocket Bear is by Katherine Applegate and is available on Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.
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*The Bear Song is not affiliated with Pocket Bear. It’s just such an awesome song that kept popping in our head as we were reading the book.
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