Teddy the Terrible

PreS-Gr 1—In this French import, a little bear terrorizes the forest. Living up to his dreadful moniker, Teddy the Terrible shakes unsuspecting squirrels out of trees, uses a stick to poke at frogs sunning on a lily pad, and plucks a pheasant's best feather to clean his teeth. For seemingly no other reason than to be cruel, Teddy tells baby birds in a nest that their mother has left and is not coming back. This unrelenting string of physical and psychological abuse is conveyed in rhyming verse that does not offer any levity or lightheartedness, just mean-spiritedness: "Now, c'mon little fishy,/I've got a plan,/Let's hold your breath,/for as long as you can." Barcilon's ink and watercolor illustrations, in muddy shades of brown and dark green, show Teddy sporting a maniacal grin while dangling a fish by its fins over a pool of water. When Teddy picks a fight with a much bigger mama bear, she tells him to knock off his bad behavior and then gives him a kiss and a cuddle. The orphan immediately reforms after experiencing a bit of affection.