A Bear Called Paddington

9/9/2020

Michael Bond

Bond's Paddington series has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide and is translated into more than 40 languages. Bond began writing short stories in 1945 and, following his service in WWII, he worked for the BBC from 1947 to 1966.

The inspiration for Paddington came from two sources: Bond's memories of the child evacuees passing through London during the war and the purchase of a toy bear-puppet left alone on a shelf at Selfridge's on Christmas eve 1956. Bond completed A Bear Called Paddington in 10 days during the spring of 1957. There are now nearly 200 Paddington stories and picture books.

Bond wrote other children's series -- A Mouse Called Thursday, Parsley, Olga Da Polga, a detective novel series for adults -- Monsieur Pamplemousse, as well as carrying a writing credit on the Paddington movie.

World Relevance

If Winnie-the-Pooh reminds us what it means to be a friend, A Bear Called Paddington is all about family. Many adults have fond memories of reading the Paddington stories as a child, but probably never thought about all of the wonderful ways family is expressed throughout the original book.

In A Bear Called Paddington, the Browns

welcome others into their family circle with warm hearts and open minds;
help & protect each other when there are problems - and Paddington is a bear who attracts messes;
forgive graciously when mistakes are made;
always expect the best;
celebrate each person's or bear's individual gifts.

Families are all different, but our children need the same kind of love and acceptance Paddington finds with the Browns.

Paddington did look much cleaner than when he had first arrived at the Browns. His fur, which was really quite light in color and not dark as it had been, was standing out like a new brush, except that it was soft and silky. His nose gleamed, and his ears had lost all traces of the ham and cream. He was so much cleaner that when he arrived downstairs and entered the dining room sometime later, everyone pretended not to recognize him.

"The tradesmen's entrance is at the side," said Mr. Brown from behind the paper.

Mrs. Brown put down her knitting and stared at him. "I think you must have come to the wrong house," she said. "This is number thirty-two not thirty-four!"

Even Jonathan and Judy agreed there must be some mistake. Paddington began to get quite worried until they all burst out laughing and said how nice he looked now that he was brushed and combed and respectable.

Peggy Fortnum

Fortnum studied art at London's Central School of Art under John Farleigh, who encouraged her to focus on illustration as a career choice. Farleigh assured Fortnum she would find work as an illustrator as long as she never tackled talking animals wearing clothes.

Her most successful and well-known illustrations are of Paddington, a talking bear wearing a duffle coat, a "rather dirty coloured hat", and Wellington boots he received for Christmas in 1964 -- drawing exactly what she'd been discouraged to do!

When commissioned to illustrate A Bear Called Paddington, Fortnum disagreed with the agent who said that anyone could draw a bear by visiting the London Zoo to sketch and photograph Malayan bears so that her illustration of a bear from the "darkest Peru" would be convincing. The success of her illustrations drew enthusiastic fan letters to which she would respond with a small drawing of the bear from Peru in her replies.

Synopsis

A little brown bear who arrived in London from the darkest of Peru, is rescued by the Browns at Paddington Station, given a name, and moves into their home and their hearts. A Bear Called Paddington is the story of family-life with a new family member who is at the the center of many extraordinary, every-day adventures.

Learning Connections

There are so many ways the book could be used for learning -- Peru, railroads, World War 2 & child evacuees, Malayan bears -- the list is quite long. Check out these two sites to get an idea of the possibilities:

Paddington, Teaching Ideas
Literature Unit Study for A Bear Called Paddington, As We Walk Along the Road

Ages: 5-12; Kindergarten to 5th grades; 174 pages. The Brown family takes Paddington home from train station and their lives are never quite the same.

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