✨Pocket Bear (2025)

By Katherine Applegate

Illustrations by Charles Santoso

4Rbooks                                           5+/6                grades          4-7

Amazon                                             4.9/5              grade level   4-6

Goodreads                                      4.38/5          

Common Sense Media              5/5                  ages 8+

261 pages

Synopsis

            Pocket Bear lives with Dasha and her mother Elizaveta. He is called Pocket Bear because he was created to live in the pocket of a soldier with eyes set higher on his head so he would always be looking at the soldier and giving him comfort.

There are other stuffed animals and toys there, most provided by their neighborhood cat, Zephyrina who finds them and delivers them. Dasha first puts them in a cart outside where the owners can find them and claim them.  If they aren’t claimed in three days, Dasha delicately cleans them and restores them and then places them in a window with a sign that read “Welcome to Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured.”

            What Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know is that during the night, while they are asleep, the toys come alive and have a meeting led by Pocket Bear and his assistant, Zephyrina. They discuss the events of the day and then play until it’s time to go back to their resting places. One night, Zephyrina comes home with a new toy, a very old teddy bear that Dasha calls Berwon. Pocket begins to suspect that Berwon might be very special and valuable.

            The home is visited by two different antique toy dealers who also recognize how valuable Berwon might be, and the historical importance of Pocket Bear, too. One wants to have them for a special exhibit at the museum, while the other wants to sell them for lots of money which she won’t share with Dasha and Elizaveta. A robbery, a theft, and a confession will be needed to bring Pocket and Berwon to a place where they can be happy and at peace together.

Parental Guidelines:    low

Dasha and her mother are refugees from Ukraine.  Elizaveta’s husband, Dasha’s father, was killed in the war. 

Dasha uses crutches because she was injured by a bomb blast during the war.

Pocket Bear belonged to a soldier in WWI who was killed.

Berwon is stolen in a scheme by a disreputable toy dealer before being rescued by Zephyrina, the cat.

To steal Berwon back, Zephyrina covers herself in human and dog poop. There are a couple of other bathroom type jokes used, but nothing out of line.

Recommendation

Newberry Medal winning author Katherine Applegate (The One and Only Ivan) has crafted another fantastic children’s book that, my opinion, should get serious consideration for this year’s Newberry Medal. She has skillfully created a story that interweaves themes of love, honor, and perseverance, while being humorous and touching. There are great examples of friendship and leadership throughout the story. Doing what is right, even when it’s hard, is also a major theme.

This should be an easy read for all levels, but mature readers will enjoy it more as an individual read. This would be a great book for into, through, and beyond lessons as there are plenty of extension areas involved: toy history, WWI and Ukraine war history, and collectibles and collecting.  There are also easy connections to make with stories like The Velveteen Rabbit, the Toy Story movies, and the Island of Misfit Toys from the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie.

There aren’t many illustrations but they are powerful and effective in telling the story.  One illustration, in particular, that shows all of the toys surrounding Pocket Bear while he is sitting on the piano keys (middle C) I would want a print of to hang in my office. Make sure and read the notes at the end of the story, they are fascinating, too.