The Tangerine Bear, story by Betty Paraskevas, pictures by Michael Paraskevas
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I fell in love with The Tangerine Bear as a bookseller. The story was well-written and compelling, the illustrations rich and vibrant.
I tried to hand-sell this book to every person who asked for a children's book recommendation. I read it to classes of kindergartners, first graders, and second graders. I read it alone at night when I couldn't sleep.
When The Child was born, I passed it along, sharing the story, reading it aloud to The Child at least once per week before bedtime. The book jacket became torn and tattered and had to be thrown away. And still we read the book every couple of months or so. And I make sure to sneak in a solo reading here and there.
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The Tangerine Bear is an existential tale of a teddy bear who has been improperly manufactured. He doesn't look exactly like the other teddy bears. This leads to his ending up in the storefront window of a second-hand store in the company of Jack, a broken jack-in-the-box, and Bird, the inhabitant of a cuckoo clock.
Bear has to learn to love himself before he can allow himself to be loved by others. It's deep stuff for kids and won't hurt the adults that read the book to them.
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File under:
*Children's
*Existentialism
*Winter
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