Corduroy

 Corduroy

Written and Illustrated by Don Freeman

Published in 1968

Grade Level: 1st-3rd grade

Synopsis: Corduroy is the story of a teddy bear who lives in a department store, but is never bought.  The story is written from Corduroy's perspective and thus the reader sees things as the teddy bear does.  One day a little girl wants to buy him, but her mother points out that he is missing one of the buttons on his overalls.  That night, Corduroy decides to explore the department store in search of a button.  This becomes an adventure for him as he tries to make his way through the store.  On his journey he encounters a moving escalator and finally a "palace."  He finally finds an object that he thinks is a matching button.  On his adventure, Corduroy makes noise and a security guard comes into the picture.  The security guard finds the stuffed bear in a place he should not have been.  He places the bear back downstairs with all the other toys.  The next day the same little girl comes into the store with some her own personal money from her piggy bank.  She takes him home and and though she liked Corduroy the way he was, she sews on a new button so he will be more comfortable with the strap fastened.   

Theme/Skill:The story of Corduroy is one of hope and compassion.  The little girl that ends up purchasing the bear shows no discrimination towards him when she discovers that he is missing a button.  She loves him just the way that he is.  This is an important lesson for children to not judge someone based merely on their appearance.  It goes along with the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Pre-reading activity: Before reading Corduroy show the students a piece of corduroy material.  Allow the students to touch the material.  In a graphic organizer, organize the attributes of the material; how it feels, how looks, etc.  Use the students answers to fill out the graphic organizer.

Post-reading activity: Read Don Freeman's story to students.  Have students bring in their own teddy bears the following day.  Organize the bears by their attributes; color, size, material, clothing, soft vs. hard, etc.  Allow the students to choose what four categories they want to categorize the bears into.  Show them examples of bar graphs.  Graph some attribute (such as hair color) to model the activity.  The students will then use the statistics (written on the board) to create a bar graph. 

Assessment: Students will be assessed on their graphs.  The graphs should be neat and accurately spaced.  Students should practice using the ruler to make the bar graph as linear as possible.  Because this will be many of the students first encounter with a bar graph, they will be graded informally. 

Reflection: Children are little people with big imaginations.  When they are young, children use those imaginations to keep themselves entertained.  Teddy bears are a popular toy that many children often have.  For instance, when I was in first grade, all those years ago, my class had a mascot.  It was a teddy bear named Fluffy.  Each week, one child would be allowed to take Fluffy home.  The parents took pictures and kept a journal of what their child did with the bear.  This book reminded me of the time I spent with the bear.  Just like the rest of my classmates, I treasured that time with the stuffed animal; an inanimate object that could not love us in return.  Nevertheless, we doted on the bear and looked forward to our time with it.  The little girl in Corduroy is no different.  She loved that bear from the moment she saw it; free from judgment.  This is a character trait that all people can share.  Perhaps reading Don Freeman's book to children will encourage them to be compassionate people.