Prince Peter and the Teddy Bear

Each day in the week leading up to Prince Peter's birthday his father and mother alternately suggest appropriately regal gifts but Peter resolutely refuses them all, requesting instead, to his parents' horror, a teddy bear. The day before the big day the queen relents and we wait as Prince Peter is handed a present - a very heavy parcel which contains a golden teddy bear. At bedtime cold, hard ted is placed beside Peter's bed but golden ted has a vital lesson to teach his owner: how a cuddle softens even the hardest exterior.

McKee has fun with the the illustrations as well as the story - they are full of patterns, jokes and references to the works of famous artists - Hockney and Monet - to name just two. The pictures abound with opportunities for developing visual literacy; it is a case of the more you look ...