 Bears in books
Once upon a time, all the bears in storybooks were based on real bears. Some of these were given human characteristics, like the bears in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Brer Bear in the Brer Rabbit folktales.
Then one day, when the teddy bear was invented, they started to appear in their own stories and adventures! There was The Tale of Teddy Brighteyes (1909), Mother Goose’s Teddy Bears (1908) and America’s Roosevelt Bears (1905), which started life as a cartoon strip in a newspaper.
Soon there were bears everywhere! Rupert the Bear had his own cartoon strip in the Daily Express from 1920 and Biffo Bear appeared on the cover of the Beano comic (1948). Other stories published were Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Mary Plain (1930), Paddington (1956) and the Gretz Teddy Bears (1968). Jane Hissey’s Old Bear and Friends is a modern day classic.
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