Corduroy by Don Freeman is a great classic story about a cute little bear who loses his button. It is one of my four year old’s favorites to read over and over again.

Corduroy waits patiently on the shelf in the toy store, day in and day out for someone to take him home. He waits along with all the other toys but nobody seemed to want to take a cute little bear home with green overalls. Finally, a little black girl wants to take him home but her mother already spent too much money and she points out that he is missing a button from his overalls. She falls in love with him despite that and Corduroy watches them sadly leave and vows to find that button.

As soon as everyone left the store and locked the doors, Corduroy jumps down from the shelf and begins searching frantically everywhere for his missing button all over the store. Suddenly, he steps on an escalator and he begins moving up, thinking that it is a mountain and that is something he has always wanted to do.

He arrives in the furniture department and sees tables, and chairs, and beds and thinks that it is a palace, a place where he thinks he has always wanted to live. He spots a mattress and thinks that he found his buttons and tugs at one of them, only to find that they are attached to the mattress. Corduroy finally is able to pull the button off while knocking over a lamp and creating quite a mess.

The night watch man finds him and wonders what Corduroy is doing upstairs. He picks him up and takes him back downstairs and places him back on the shelf. And he falls asleep and wakes up to a shock. There in front of him is the little girl who liked him. Lisa told him that she had counted the money in her piggy bank and that she would take Corduroy home.

She ran all the way home and up the four flights of stairs to her bedroom. Corduroy looks around and realizes that he is home. And Lisa sews on his new button on his overalls. They are friends.

This is such a great loving story about a little girl who counted up all her piggy bank money to pay for this little bear who was missing a button. I believe that the story teaches compassion, love, and the appreciation of being lucky to have a home.

The book is illustrated by Don Freeman also. The pictures are alive with color and brightness. The pictures do a wonderful job at helping tell the tale of Corduroy. To a little bear, it illustrates all of his huge adventures that nobody ever thinks about.

Corduroy was first published in 1968. It is 32 pages long. The pages are not numbered, which I found unusual, but makes sense, because most of the kids who read Corduroy read it with their parents and don’t understand page numbers.

It is geared toward children between the ages of three and eight. My four year old daughter loves this and we’ll continue to read it to her until she tires of it or she could even read it herself.

Other books by Don Freeman are Norman the Doorman, another one which my daughter adores, and the Corduroy adventures continue with Corduroy’s Busy Street and Corduroy’s Garden and many more.

It is available at Amazon for $6.99 http://www.amazon.com/Corduroy-Picture-Puffins-Don-Freeman/dp/0140501738 or at your local library.

This is my tenth entry in the The best LITTLE write off ever


Recommended: Yes