Yikes! Eddie's teddy is enormous! And there's a real bear with just the opposite problem - his teddy bear is much too small! Could it be a case of mistaken identity?

Reviews

Given its mistaken identities and characters meandering through the woods, this irresistible bedtime story is faintly reminiscent of certain Shakespearean comedies and the cartoonlike characters in Calvin and Hobbes. When little Eddie braves the ``dark and horrible'' woods to look for his lost teddy bear Freddie, he confuses a real bear's giant teddy with his own. ``How did you get to be this size?'' he asks. Elsewhere in the woods, the real bear is sobbing over Eddie's Freddie, thinking his own teddy bear has shrunk. Alborough ( Beaky ) cleverly plots the confrontation scene as the real bear ``stomps toward . . . the giant teddy and Eddie,'' and by book's end both real bear and Eddie are reassuringly tucked in their respective beds, ``huddled and cuddled with their own little teds.'' Alborough's verse adroitly employs kid-pleasing rhythms and repetitions, while his watercolor, crayon and pencil drawings underscore the broad comedy of this perfectly satisfying scenario of scary fun. Ages 3-up. (Aug.)

PreS-- Oversized pages covered with tall, leafy green trees set the stage for and reinforce the mood of this farcical tale of lost teddies. Reminiscent of McCloskey's Blueberries for Sal (Viking, 1948), the story tells of the mix-up of two stuffed toys, one belonging to a small boy and the other to a giant bear. The rhyming text will keep readers turning pages, while their fear of the unknown and the ensuing visual absurdity will keep them riveted. Although the real bear looms ominously large at first, he becomes less of a threat once it becomes clear that his only concern is his own teddy and not the trembling boy. Children will be reassured to find that creatures big and small need their steady comforts. --Martha Topol, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MI