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Bears in Children’s Stories
In Kidsworld, every fifth animal seems to be a bear.
To identify the kinds of animals the young feel close to, all zoologists need do is conduct a census of creatures in children’s stories. That would reveal a startlingly fact: In children’s books, every fifth animal seems to be a bear. In fact, a literary zoologist would observe a population explosion among minors of ursus major: blacks, browns, polars, grizzlies, pandas, and teddies.
What accounts for this? Why are the young more inclined to carry around teddy bears rather than, say, stuffed geckos or upholstered cows? And why are there so many stories about teddies: Paddington, Corduroy, Winnie the Pooh, Care Bears, Berenstain’s Bears, and more? To be sure, having lent his name to this stuffed creature, President Teddy Roosevelt bears some responsibility; but even before these furry replicas came to bear his name, youngsters carried around baby bruins as if totems of their tribe.
