Peef and His Best Friend (Peef the Bear) - Hardcover

Tom Hegg is a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, actor and writer. He has touched countless lives with his New York Times bestselling title, A Cup of Christmas Tea, and his series of books about PEEF The Christmas Bear. Tom is a drama teacher at Breck School in Minneapolis where he holds the rank of Master Teacher. He trained at Carnegie Mellon and performed for many magical seasons at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Tom and his wife Peggy live in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Preschool-Grade 1--In this story told in rhyme, an unnamed boy and his stuffed bear have imaginary adventures during the summer. They see dinosaurs in the hedges, escape from spies on a scooter, and fight pirates in the bathtub. Then the boy goes to school and wants to be friends with the popular crowd. When one of them visits his house and belittles Peef as a baby toy, the boy tosses his faithful pal into a corner. But the potential friendship doesn't work out. The boy apologizes to the bear, who advises the child to "[be] true to who you are," and that when "the two of us may have to say goodbye," they will both know. In the meantime, they resume their imaginary play, content with one another. While the story hardly offers a satisfactory resolution of friendship issues, it is the forced, wooden verse; condescending use of "Dear Children"; and antiquated, capitalized reference to the bear as the boy's "Best Friend" that make this story seem old-fashioned, didactic, and unappealing. Hanson's bright watercolors depict the anthropomorphic bear drinking, smiling, and crying, which is true to some children's imagination, while the energetic boy in striped T-shirt and white tennis shoes will be familiar to grandparents' memories of childhood.

Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.