The Show Must Go On! Corduroy Takes A Bow by Viola Baker

Lisa held Corduroy tight as they walked up the steps.

She had never been to a big theater like this before. Neither had Corduroy.

The big lobby was all a-bustle with ticket-takers and ushers handing out programs, all lit by golden glowing chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Lisa and Corduroy look around with excitement. And then the chandeliers blinked off and on.

"That means the play will start in a few minutes. We should find our seats!" said Lisa's mother.

The play was about Mother Goose rhymes and Lisa couldn't wait. But when a big man sat down right in front of her, blocking her view of the stage, Lisa's mother quickly folded their coats into a cushion and when Lisa stood up so Mom could put it in her seat--Corduroy slid to the floor under the seat in front of Lisa without notice.

But Corduroy is one resourceful bear. He wandered under the seats down to the orchestra pit in front of the stage, right as the curtain was about go up, and climbed on the tallest thing around--a big kettledrum! A stagehand spotted Corduroy and deftly snatched him up quickly from behind the curtain and tossed him in among the props. Corduroy landed in a basket in the branches of a fake tree and suddenly found himself being trundled onstage, as the actress playing Mother Goose began to sing "Rock-a-Bye Baby." Corduroy realized that his basket was that rocking cradle.

Corduroy gets dizzy!

But that's SHOW BIZ! The bough duly broke and down it did fall, Corduroy and all. The show must go on, so "Mother Goose" grabbed up Corduroy and together the two of them take that bow as the curtain came down.

That's SHOW BIZ, and Corduroy is the star of the show, in Viola Baker's new title, Corduroy Takes a Bow (Viking Books, 2018), a welcome return of that wandering toy bear in his green overalls, illustrated with loving care in the patched-pocket style of beloved author-illustrator Don Freeman. It seems that youngsters can't get enough of Corduroy, a bear after their own minds whose curiosity leads him into irresistible adventures. Best read aloud after kids are familiar with Freeman's originals, Corduroy and A Pocket for Corduroy. "A delightful new act for ever-curious Corduroy—and an entertaining introduction to the theater." says Booklist.

Too Much Of A Good Thing? The Boy and the Bear by Peter Stein

The boy had a bear
A fuzzy brown bear

The boy. The bear.
Always a pair.

The boy and bear go everywhere together.

But on the way to everywhere, what does he note? A goat... in a polka-dot coat!

Who could resist such a jolly fellow? But then the boy spots a toy slug who needs a hug...

And on a tree limb, he spies HIM--a funky monkey! And that's not all. Under a ten-gallon hat... is that a toy rat?

The boy can barely believe it! He's loaded down with irresistible fuzzy toys, but then, with a goofy grin, he spots this... THING with a pull string that makes it sing!

The toys are all sweet and neat, but a boy can only carry so many cuddly critters before he... (yikes!) TRIPS! Fuzzy toys scatter all over the quirky landscape.

But where was the bear?
He looked everywhere.

Kids will giggle as the boy, his beloved bear right smack on top of his head, searches high and low for his favorite, and that's not all...

He saw a blimp.
A delivery blimp...

A slippery latch
Had opened the hatch...

It's a flying contraption straight out of the mind of Dr. Seuss (or maybe a daffy drone doing an Amazon delivery), and what's a kind boy to do but help upload its jettisoned cargo, in Peter Stein's whimsical toy story, The Boy and the Bear (Holiday House, 2019). With jolly rhyming text and a whimsical and wacky landscape, author-illustrator Peter Stein's latest is a highly visual comic story written in playful verse that begs to be read aloud.

The Play's The Thing! Night Play: A Bedtime Story in Three Acts by Lizi Boyd

Little Arlo is already attired in his stripey pajamas and paper nightcap and is ready to head for bed. But his toy bedtime buddies are not!

"I'm so sleepy. Just one more play and off to bed." Arlo says.

"Oh, yay!" says Bunny.

"Hooray!" says Cat

"Yippee!" says 'Coon.

"Starring Arlo and Friends!" announces Bird.

It's ACT I. The curtain is pulled back, revealing a backdrop of a lake with sailboats and a small island in the center. Arlo's menagerie of stuffed animals get to work as stagehands and impromptu actors. Oars for the sailboat are located, and Bird scouts out the wind, but it seems their little audience, Arlo, is already dozing.

"Let him sleep! We'll do Act II!"

The curtain opens again upon a medieval scene, as Cat hands out the costumes, but rest of cast finds their knightly stage garb too itchy, too heavy, and too hard to see out of. The production seems to falling apart. Sets get haphazardly switched, with grumpy actors going off-script and getting downright rowdy.

At last, Arlo wakes up and takes charge of the production. The cast of characters fall in line and follow the director. The show must go on, and together they complete the play.

And in a dramatic final sweep of the curtain comes ACT III...

All sail away...

And cast and crew and Arlo, too, sail off to dreamland at last, in Lizi Boyd's latest, Night Play (Chronicle Books, 2018). Ever since Wynken and Blynken and Nod sailed off one night into a sea of dew, kids have been drifting off to dreamland with a bedtime story, and this beddie-bye tale showing toys and little sleeper Arlo cooperating to create their own backdrops (presumably painted by the stage crew between pages) allows them to perform the roles in their own play.

Youngsters will love artist Boyd's text, with plenty of speech balloons delivered by the plushy performers, as well as her skillful manipulation of the toy-and-movable format which uses die-cut pages to provide the opening and closing stage curtain between scenes. It's a novel bedtime story, concluding in a showstopper of a double-page gatefold as the performers, their night play over, take their bows and toddle offstage to bed. This book is something of a tour-de-force for Lizi Boyd, whose earlier sleeping-out bedtime tale, Flashlight, similar in style if not in palette, was a hit in its clever use of black and white contrasts. (see review here).