Corduroy Author: Don Freeman | Language: English | ISBN:
0140501738 | Format: PDF
Corduroy Description
Amazon.com Review
Have you ever dreamed of being locked in a department store at night? The endearing story of Corduroy paints a picture of the adventures that might unfold (for a teddy bear at least) in such a situation. When all the shoppers have gone home for the night, Corduroy climbs down from the shelf to look for his missing button. It's a brave new world! He accidentally gets on an elevator that he thinks
must be a mountain and sees the furniture section that he thinks must be a palace. He tries to pull a button off the mattress, but he ends up falling off the bed and knocking over a lamp. The night watchman hears the crash, finds Corduroy, and puts him back on the shelf downstairs. The next morning, he finds that it's his lucky day! A little girl buys him with money she saved in her piggy bank and takes him home to her room. Corduroy decides that this
must be home and that Lisa must be his friend. Youngsters will never get tired of this toy-comes-alive tale with a happy ending, so you may also want to seek out Dan Freeman's next creation,
A Pocket for Corduroy.
(Ages 3 to 8) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A winning, completely childlike picture book in which a stuffed bear waiting hopefully in a toy department finds a home with a little black girl. Endearing, brightly colored pictures. --
Booklist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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- Age Range: 2 and up
- Lexile Measure: 600L (What's this?)
- Paperback: 32 pages
- Publisher: Puffin (September 30, 1976)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140501738
- ISBN-13: 978-0140501735
- Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 8.8 x 0.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Corduroy is a stuffed bear who lives on the shelf of a department store. One day a girl named Lisa spies him and exclaims over him, but her mother points out that he is missing a button from his overalls, and the two depart without buying him. That night, while the store is quiet, Corduroy explores the store in search of his button. He is unsuccessful and is returned to his shelf by a security guard; but in the morning the little girl returns, having ransacked her piggy bank, and carries him home in her arms. There she sews a new button on him and settles him into her home.
There are several elements of this charming story that have made it popular for decades. Corduroy has a flaw that he cannot repair by himself -- his missing button. This produces in him a helplessness and dependence on others that children, who understand their own dependence on adults, will respond to with empathy.
Additionally, Corduroy takes his circumstances for granted until the prospect of a change comes along; this provokes him to try to better himself. As he explores the store, his horizons are broadened: "I think I've always wanted to climb a mountain," he says as he goes up the escalator; "I guess I've always wanted to live in a palace," as he enters the furniture department. It is only on arriving at Lisa's home that he realizes what he really needs is a home and a friend -- two things young children intuitively know they need as well.
A final touch is that Lisa's family is not a wealthy one: Lisa's mother cannot buy the bear because she has "spent too much already," and Lisa and her parents live in a fourth-floor apartment rather than a large house. But the little home is a secure one, filled with warm touches and supplied with the tools needed to replace Corduroy's button.
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