The Adventures of Donovan and Baby Bear

The day that Donovan first met Baby Bear was the day that he and Grandma had gone to have his picture taken. They had just left the photographer’s and had decided to visit the toy department. As they were walking through the aisles of shelf after shelf of toys, Donovan saw him. He was sitting on a shelf with other stuffed animals and toys, but all Donovan noticed was the little bear.

“Look Grandma, look at the baby bear,” said Donovan. “I want him to come home with me.” Donovan ran over to where the little bear was sitting and took him off of the shelf and started hugging him. He was hugging him so tightly that Grandma had a hard time finding the price tag to give to the sales lady so they could pay for him. This is how Donovan discovered Baby Bear.

When he got back to Grandpa and Grandma’s house, Donovan could hardly wait to show Grandpa and his great grandma, whom he called Gee Gee his new friend. They both thought Baby Bear was a very nice bear and they were glad to have him come live with them.

Donovan and Baby Bear did everything together. They ate together…they played together…they watched television together with Donovan explaining the parts that Baby bear didn’t understand. They spent every moment of every day together. At night when they went to bed Donovan would hold onto Baby Bear and slip his finger through Baby Bear’s tag. The tag formed a loop and Donovan told Grandma that the tag was a finger house.

Donovan and Baby Bear made up games to play. One day they were playing in the kitchen and Donovan decided to press his face against the glass of the French door and make his face look funny and flat to make Baby Bear laugh. Uncle Ken was there that day and he was laughing along with Baby Bear. Uncle Ken told Donovan that they should let Baby Bear press his face against the glass to make them laugh. So Baby Bear pressed his face against the glass but when he did his face went blank. He was so soft and furry his face seemed to disappear.

This is the beginning of a book that I wrote and illustrated some 20 plus years ago. It’s based on the relationship between my grandson and his teddy bear. I finished the story and drew eleven drawings but never finished the illustrations as other things were always getting in the way. I thought it would be fun to share this first bit of the story and because these are the only drawings that got colored it’s as far as I can go at this time. The paper is old and yellowing and the drawings are done in colored pencil so I must apologise for the quality of the photos. I tried scanning them first but the scanned pictures were even poorer and the colors were so different that they didn't even look like the same drawings.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the beginnings of my great novel. Grinning here.

As always, thanks for stopping by.