Sofia's Bear is old. He has been passed down from her grandfather to her mother and then onto Sofia.
"He was less like a toy and more like a friend."
This loved Teddy Bear joins in with every activity - picnics, forest walks and even a day at the beach but it is at the beach that disaster strikes. As Sofia and her dad rush to catch their bus, after a storm suddenly interrupts their day, the old bear is accidentally dropped and left on the beach.
"And nobody saw, but the Sea."
Now the long journey begins. Over days, and weeks and months and years Teddy travels. All Sofia has is her memory and his little blue scarf. Finally one day the Sea takes the bear along a river and down a stream. He is found by a young girl who takes the old bear home to show her grandmother.
"You see, nothing is ever truly lost if you keep it in your heart."
There are a couple of interesting things to notice about this book. Firstly Sofia is given the bear "and from the day Sofia was born, the bear had kept her company too." There is no mother in the story only a photo on the wall of a pregnant mum holding the bear. Sofia is seen playing alone with her bear and on the trip to the zoo her father is her only companion. When Sofia returns home without her bear she takes a small piece of his blue scarf and places it inside a locket where we can see there is also a photo of her mum. In the final scenes when Sofia has become a grandmother we can see she is still wearing her locket. The second thing to notice are the little touches of humour. Dad reads a newspaper on the train with headlines "Lots of things are happening in the world today" "Giant squirrels attack!" and "Mount Fuji falls over (but gets picked up again after)".
I do enjoy stories about lost toys that are eventually reunited with their owner - I'm thinking of Ducky's Nest and Finding Monkey Moon. I also like stories where toys have connections across generations such as Humprehy's Bear and, even though it is not a toy, I also thought of The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros and The Little Boat.
Other classic books on this topic are Dogger; Where are you, Blue Kangaroo?; and Nothing.
Here is a photo of my treasured teddy. He was not lost but he did go for a swim in an ocean pool!
I loved two previous books by Tom Percival:
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