cover image Where Did My Teddy Go?

Where Did My Teddy Go?

Famela Simmons, illus. by Merilee Burris. Mascot Kids, $18.95 (38p) ISBN 978-1-63755-083-0

A young fox and its mother move through a conventional bedtime routine while searching for the youth’s missing stuffy, who remains one step ahead of them. At each stage, the kit poses the question, “Mama, where did my Teddy go?” Rhyming replies from Simmons present minor variations (“My child, my love,/ I do not know”), leading into further place-based queries: “Is Teddy with/ Sir Rubber Duck?// There’s no one here;/ we’re out of luck.” Washed in soothing shades, Burris’s flat, thin-lined art tracks the foxes as they move through the home, just barely missing Teddy at each stop. Meanwhile, light seek-and-find components invite readers to spot the stuffed animal as it eyes the pair from behind a pillow or around a corner. Naturally, the trio’s game of hide-and-seek concludes when everyone has reached the child’s bed, the interactivity having offered readers a wind-down tool, too. Ages 2–6. (Mar.)