One for the hope chest...

So, "the hope chest" is the list I have on here of awesome children's books I want to make sure I have for my children and grandchildren (and nieces and nephews and "godchildren"). And one that I don't think is on there yet, but absolutely must be, is Gentleman Bear by William Pène du Bois.

Last night I was talking to M(2) about old Olympics, and track and field - that is to say, he was talking about track and field at past Olympics, and I waited semi-patiently for him to wrap up what he was saying and then said "I had a book when I was a kid about a teddy bear that went to the Olympics and Hitler shook his hand and he was NOT HAPPY." And then was off and running on the fantasticness of this sweet, whimsical book about an upper class English boy (or, as I pointed out, the only kind of person where you have the money and history to tolerate whimsical weirdness) who is never separated from his teddy bear, who is always dressed in matching outfits. They go off to boarding school, and university, the Berlin Olympics, and fly in the R.A.F. in World War II. They get married (not to each other, obviously), and raise a family. And it's so cute! And the pictures suit it perfectly.

I was dismayed to see, when I pulled up the GoodReads entry on my blackberry at the bar last night, that it's apparently no longer in print, and crappy old copies are being sold for next to nothing. Gentleman Bear is such a great book, it should be in higher demand - although I suppose I can see how it has virtually no relevance to virtually any child today. But relevance is not always the point. In this case, it's just a nice, funny book with good pictures.

Honestly, I am pretty sure that the book stayed on my bookcase at least through grad school (hey - it's skinny, it doesn't take up much room, and it was on a bottom shelf - with all the old National Geographics I couldn't bear to throw away), which means it's in one of the more recently packed boxes in my dad's house, just waiting to be put back on the shelves once I get around to repainting the walls. So I probably don't even really need to put it on the Hope Chest list, but then again - out of sight is out of mind, and I don't want to forget this one.