Introducing Teddy Review By: Ayisha Hernandez

Introducing Teddy (LGBTQ)

Walton, Jessica. (2016) Introducing Teddy: A Gentle Story about gender and Friendship.

New York, New York: Bloomsbury USA Childrens.

Thomas is a bear who isn’t like other bears. Thomas plays all of the things his human Errol like to play such as riding bikes, planting vegetables, and eating sandwiches in the tree house. One day Thomas doesn’t feel like playing and is very sad. Errol tries to cheer him up by taking him to the park. While at the park, Thomas confesses to Errol that he is so sad because deep down inside he is really a girl teddy, not a boy teddy. Thomas wishes his name was Tilly. This does not bother Errol, who assures Tilly that they can still be great friends.

The story is told through the perspective of the narrator. The language in the book is very easy to follow and does not require any separate vocabulary lessons. The story gave ideas and suggestions to the characters in the story that would seem to work in most situations that a child may face. The author made the story very “to the point.” there was no underlying tone or hints towards why Thomas, later Tilly, was feeling sad. The situation of gender identity was very obvious in the story, which may be good for some children, but may make some children, especially those going through gender identity crisis, uncomfortable. Although the storyline could have been better, the message of the story is still an important one. The story seems to be written for children from Kindergarten age to about early Third Grade.