I often borrowed the Corduroy stories from the library when I was younger so I was so excited when we were given a copy of A Pocket for Corduroy. Now my daughter loves him too. Corduroy is a very cute bear who belongs to a little girl called Lisa and he’s very inquisitive!
The Story: Lisa sits Corduroy on a chair in the laundromat while she helps Mum with the washing. When Corduroy hears Mum talking about pockets he realises that he doesn’t have one so he goes off to find one. His search takes him into a bag of damp laundry, he just misses being put into a dryer and after sliding down a mountain of soap powder he ends up sleeping all night in an empty laundry basket. Meanwhile the laundromat has closed and Lisa (very reluctantly) has gone home but she comes back early next morning to look for him. When Corduroy tells her he was looking for a pocket she makes him a pocket of his own.
Corduroy is adorable and has a real sense of adventure. My daughter has the same relationship with her soft toys and dolls as Lisa does with Corduroy which is why I think the book has so much appeal. The human characters in the story come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and they are all great role models for caring and and helping. Lisa takes care of Corduroy, solves his pocket problem and helps Mum with the washing, an artist dries Corduroy’s overalls for him and the manager of the laundromat helps Lisa to find Corduroy. The text is easy to read and my daughter loves the details in the watercolour pictures. I can imagine that this story may upset some children who don’t like the idea of Corduroy being left behind but Lisa makes sure that there is a happy ending for them both.
The story could be used to stimulate a range of discussions including helping, caring, race and culture. My daughter has never been to a laundromat so she was also curious about the setting of the book which gave us lots to talk about.
Age Range: 3 +
Author / Illustrator: Don Freeman
I also loved Corduroy, the book that precedes A Pocket for Corduroy. It tells the story of how Corduroy and Lisa met.
Leave a Reply