“Suddenly he felt the floor moving under him! Quite by accident he had stepped onto an escalator — and up he went!”
“Could this be a mountain?” he wondered. “I think I’ve always wanted to climb a mountain.”
Corduroy is a bear sitting on a toy department shelf waiting day after day for someone to buy him. One day a girl named Lisa wants to buy him, but her mother says they have no more money to spend and he has a missing button. That night Corduroy embarks on an adventure to find his missing button, which doesn’t go well. But the next day Lisa comes back to purchase him and takes him to his new home, a small, quaint, and perfect little place for Corduroy.
This is a beautiful simple story about a bear wanting to find a home, and a girl looking for a friend. I love the fact that Lisa likes Corduroy just the way he is with one missing button.The story does a great job of making the reader care about the little bear who just wants to be loved and find a home. Young kids will enjoy the adventurous parts in the middle, when Corduroy discovers the escalator or the rest of the department store.
The 40th Anniversary Edition has a special treat at the end for fans of the book or children’s literature. It has a draft of the story with some editor marks, some early illustrations of the book, and letters between Don Freeman and the editor.
Recommendation: Add to Home Library
Author & Illustrator: Don Freeman
If you liked Corduroy I recommend for older readers the middle-grade book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. A selfish cold-hearted china rabbit toy gets separated from his owner and begins a journey where he learns about love, sorrow, loneliness, and compassion through the people that he meets along the way.
