But this is only the beginning of their story. He hadn’t known that his overalls were missing a button and what’s more, Lisa and her mum were going home without him. She points out to Lisa that one of Corduroy’s overall buttons has been torn off. Her arms are already laden with packages, and she explains that she’s just spent too much money that day and anyway, the bear appears to be damaged. Lisa’s mum doesn’t buy the bear for Lisa, though. And for a moment, Corduroy’s hopes are lifted. Corduroy is the teddy bear she has always wanted. One day however, a lovely girl named Lisa stops in front of him and looks into his bright brown eyes. He ponders with longing that, as shoppers are always choosing the other toys around him, no one seems to want to bring a stuffed bear home. All day and every day he watches as a parade of busy customers comes and goes before him. As it happens, Corduroy teems mostly with mutual admiration – and it’s stuffed, as teddy bears are, with bits of cotton and rags and love.Īt the book’s opening, Corduroy resides on a shelf in a department store. It is simply a story that, whether intended or not, quietly brings out the best in us, as many of the most profound books of our childhoods do.

It isn’t stuffed with edge-of-your-seat sagas and cliff-hangers or far off galaxies. The plot of Corduroy doesn’t exactly teem with sophisticated characters or outrageous plot twists. This reviewer is certain that Corduroy and his best friend Lisa wouldn’t have it any other way. Since 1997, all proceeds from the Corduroy books have been gifted to the Lydia Freeman Charitable Foundation which was created by Don Freeman’s widow and which helps children with physical and mental disabilities all over the world. More importantly, since its 1968 debut, it has inspired millions of hugs and character-building conversations. For almost 50 years it’s been at the core of the young reader’s canon of literature and has consistently ranked within the top 25 children’s books of all time. Fortunately for fans of classic children’s literature, many of these great titles are as available, and as full of their original magic, as ever.Ĭorduroy is a story that depicts desire without selfishness, friendship without conditions – and an occasional teddy bear mishap. Freeman’s illustrations represent a diligent, devoted, hand-drawn line and colour transparency style that, for the most part, is only found in books of a bygone era. Those of us who’ve had the pleasure of reading (and re-reading) Corduroy have, page after page, been visually transfixed by Mr. He is also the perfectly adorable and quite memorable star of Don Freeman’s series of Corduroy books. Corduroy is a stuffed brown bear in green overalls who can think and feel – and wander around – all on his own.

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