Love, Your Bear Pete - Hardcover

After Brenda accidentally leaves her blue teddy bear, Pete, on the bus, her mother phones the lost and found, but to no avail. Brenda mopes, but three days later, she gets a surprise: a postcard from Pete, sent from London. "He must have gotten on a different bus," says Brenda's mother. Although Brenda misses Pete, she looks forward to his correspondence, which issues from such cities as Paris, Moscow and Nairobi and is always affectionately signed "Love, Your Bear Pete." And never fear--a happy reunion closes the book, although it doesn't solve the mystery of the teddy bear's adventures. Hurt-Newton, making her picture book debut, works in a lively palette of acrylics; she contrasts scenes of Brenda at home--playing with a dog, lying on her bed to read, seated at the breakfast table--with postcards and spreads depicting Pete's international destinations. Choppy black outlines give Hurt-Newton's work the look of block prints, and overlapping images add constant variety. Enterprising kids can find a casual geography lesson in Sheldon's ( The Whales' Song ) adventuresome and appealingly enigmatic tale. Ages 3-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 4-6. After Brenda leaves her stuffed bear Pete behind on the bus, she mopes around, missing him terribly. Brenda's mother tries to make her feel better by saying that Pete is having an adventure. Shortly thereafter, Brenda receives a postcard--from London--signed "Love, Your Bear Pete." The postcard turns out to be the first of many, as Pete sends his regards from Paris, Venice, Moscow, Nairobi, Cairo, Tangier, Beijing, an Amazon jungle, and finally the Grand Canyon. This is the first picture book Hurt-Newton has illustrated, and her acrylic paintings on white backgrounds are bright and fun. The places Pete visits are depicted in a kind of wide-eyed, bigger-than-life style, which complements Brenda's rich fantasy life. Mother's role in all this can be as innocent or as guilty as you want. (But she seems pretty spunky in those green high-tops.) In any case, the strong mother-daughter relationship is appreciated. Readers will delight in the book's premise and the happy ending. Kathryn Broderick