The Teddy Bear Habit

Gr 4–7—Most of us are familiar with James Lincoln Collier's signature work, the 1974 Newbery Honor book, My Brother Sam Is Dead (Scholastic), but fewer know this work (Price Stern Sloan, 1967), Collier's first foray into children's books. Inveterate worrier and self-proclaimed loser George Stable lives in 1960s Greenwich Village and suffers from such debilitating performance anxiety that he relies on the comfort of his childhood teddy bear for relief. As the story opens, listeners are plunged into the high anxiety of auditioning for a Broadway musical. "The waiting kills you," George explains, as his nerves spin out of control. It seems implausible for a 12-year-old living in Manhattan to have a teddy bear talisman. Yet, with the stuffed animal stowed in his guitar, he aces a television audition. George decides to keep this secret along with his guitar lessons from his single-parent dad. What a tangled web he weaves, indeed. Then stolen jewels turn up inside the teddy. The truly terrifying ending is worth the slog through the hyperbole and endless obsession with the bear. August Ross does a serviceable job with the dated material. He voices George with believably young inflections and makes slight changes in tone to indicate different characters. An additional purchase.—Lonna Pierce, MacArthur & Thomas Jefferson Elementary Schools, Binghamton, NY