#905 of 1001 · January 22, 2023

The book of the day is Bruce Degen’s Teddy Bear Towers. A boy rules over a merry kingdom of the imagination—a bright castle rising from the middle of the ocean, home to a jocund teddy bear troupe and a tiny flock of teddy birds, with merbears swimming in the waters below. Up to the door of the marvelous villa floats a picnic basket, which contains a spritely toddler. The boy king, irked at the thought of sharing his private world, does his best to get rid of the new arrival, even going so far as to throw the young child into the sea. When an angry sea bear fixes his wrath on the monarch, the toddler intervenes and wins the older boy’s approval and friendship. Degen’s bouncy lines of dactylic rhyming verse eschew narration, with dialogue alone propelling the story forward. The lively illustrations present a fanciful fortress of dominoes, crayons, marbles, dice, and chess pieces—the odds and ends of childhood play. #teddy #bear #teddybear #towers #tower #castle #sea #ocean #friend #friends #friendship #book #books #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks