I must admit that I haven't read very many of the Corduroy the bear books.  I'm not sure why, because whenever I do read them to my daycare children they seem to enjoy them and so do I.  Recently I read Corduroy's Christmas Surprise to 3 year olds, Cindy and Dani.


The Story

Corduroy was excited that he would be having his best friends Mouse, Rabbit, Dolly and Puppy over on Christmas Day. 

Corduroy writes his letter to Santa and wants a warm sweater, ice skates, a train and a ball.

When three of his friends come caroling at his house he goes out to carol with them at Dolly's house.  As the friends gather in Dolly's house they each begin to talk about what they want for Christmas and Corduroy is rather ashamed of himself when he realizes his friends each want just one gift and he wanted four.  He was afraid the if he received what he asked for his friends wouldn't receive their gifts.  He decided to write another letter to Santa and asked that he give each of his friends what they wanted.  He would be happy just to see them happy.

On Christmas morning Corduroy was delighted to see that each of his friends received what they had asked for and a second gift as well.  He was so surprised to find two presents for himself too!  Did he get any of the gifts he had asked for?  What did his friends receive?  You'll have to read the book!

The Illustrations

The illustrations in this book are done as most of the Corduroy books are done, keeping the little bear looking as a child would expect.  He is done in a sandy brown and wears clothing, adding to his personality.  Throughout the book he is dressed in green overalls, until he goes to bed on Christmas Eve and then he is blue footy pajamas. 

The drawings are done with filled in solid black lines with the colors being mostly softer shades with some bright backgrounds behind.  There is an almost quilted look to some of the animals, making them look like stuffed animals.

The text is a bit small and probably my only complaint.  The text runs along the bottom or the top of each page and with these old eyes is sometimes a bit difficult to see when I'm holding the book up and reading to my daycare children.

Our Feelings

The first day that I read this book I only had 3 year old Dani to read to.  We cuddled up on the couch and she told me she ‘like that book.'  She asked for it again right away, even though it is a bit of longer story than many that we read.

Since then I've read it to the girls either sitting at the table for lunch (small text makes holding it up and reading it a bit difficult) and we've read it with one child on each side of me on the couch.  Both girls listen intently and seem to really enjoy hearing about Corduroy and about Christmas too, of course.

While I don't think that the girls quite get the reason that Corduroy asked for his friends to receive the gifts and didn't ask for anything for himself, they did think it was nice that they were all such great friends and that Corduroy had them all at his house on Christmas morning.

I like that Corduroy thought about what he was asking for and decided it would be better for his friends to receive and through their happiness he would be receiving a gift too.

 I also like that all of the animals received two gifts, one a toy and one an article of clothing.  They all valued receiving these gifts and I'm very pleased that the last page talks about writing another letter to Santa, this time to thank him.  That is definitely a good message to give to children. 

This book helps to teach friendship, sharing, caring and gratitude not bad for a 32 page paperback book!

I especially love that on the title page in bold letters the reader is told that a *bear's share of the royalties form the sale of this book goes to the Don and Lydia Freeman Research Fund to support psychological care and research concerning children with life-threatening illness.

I very highly recommend this book for children from around 3 years and up to about 7 years old. 

Nuts & Bolts

Corduroy's Christmas Surprise is based on the character created by Don Freeman.  The illustrations were done by Lisa McCue.

Scholastic Inc. published this 32 page paperback book in 1992. 

ISBN:  0439314402


This review is an entry in to the Resurrecting the Oldies Write-Off by msmorvay.

Recommended: Yes