Corduroy (book) facts for kids
Cover art
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| Author | Don Freeman |
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| Illustrator | Don Freeman |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature, picture book |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
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Publication date
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1968 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 32 |
| ISBN | 0-590-30907-2 |
| Followed by | A Pocket for Corduroy |
Corduroy is a 1968 children's book written and illustrated by Don Freeman, and published by Viking Press. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." It was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.
Plot
The book tells the story of a teddy bear named Corduroy, displayed on a toy shelf in a department store. One day, a young girl named Lisa arrives at the store with her mother and spots the bear. She is eager to buy him, but her mother refuses to spend more money and notices a button is missing from his overalls.
At night, when the shoppers and the people of the department store have gone (and the doors were closed and locked), little Corduroy (when no one is looking) decides to find the missing button himself and goes on a trip around the department store. He rides an escalator and takes himself to the second floor. There, he finds furniture he had never seen before. There were tables, chairs, lamps, sofas, and rows of beds. Corduroy admires the furniture and crawls onto a mattress from one of the beds. Meanwhile, he saw something small and round. Thinking that one of the mattress buttons is the one he is missing, he pulls hard on it and eventually topples from the bed, knocking over a lamp. The store security guard (in the book called a "night watchman") hears the noise from the third floor, discovers the bear, and returns him to his place (which is the toy department that stored the other dolls and stuffed animals).
The next day, Lisa comes back with the money she had found in her piggy bank and finally buys Corduroy. At home, she sews a button on his shoulder strap and the book ends with them saying that they both had wanted a friend, while hugging each other.
Adaptations
- Corduroy was made into a short telefilm in 1984.
- In 1997, an direct-to-video animated series, The Adventures of Corduroy, was produced, which ran until 1999.
- In 2000, another animated Corduroy TV series was produced in Canada, which ran on PBS until 2001.
- On November 14, 2016, it was announced that Tim Story will direct a film adaptation of the story for CBS Films, and Walden Media will co-develop the project with Jack and Kate Angelo writing the script.
- A stage adaptation was produced by Children's Theatre Company in 2018.
See also
In Spanish: Corduroy (libro) para niños
