Kraus doesn’t shy away from anger, fear, death, and other dark subjects instead they become opportunities for growth in difficult environments.
While the visceral narrative follows the teddy troupe’s adventurous challenges and survival, its focus is on Buddy’s inner struggles as he ponders identity, leadership, and other existential dilemmas. As they encounter other Furringtons in disarray, this opener in The Teddies Saga series becomes a mystery about why these teddies are being harmed in the first place. Yearning to connect with a child and achieve a state of peaceful Forever Sleep, Buddy and his new friends of differing temperaments and gifts set out on a harrowing journey through the city to find children who will want them. So why did he wake up in a landfill with other Furringtons of varying hues? A more pressing matter, however, is escaping Trashland and its murderous gulls and bulldozers. The journey to find a child becomes an existential quest for an abandoned teddy bear.īuddy is not just any stuffed bear, but a blue Furrington Teddy with a Real Silk Heart. The scenes involving the neighborhood criminal element and some final plot twists seem a little contrived, but Li’l T’s voice and love for Buddy feel authentic, and those elements are enough to carry the story.Ī touching tale of hope, of holding on when you can, and of letting go when it’s the right thing to do. When the family moves back to New Orleans, Li’l T learns that he just might be able to get Buddy back from the family in California who has adopted him. Li’l T struggles mightily during the family’s temporary stay in Mississippi, suffering the loss of his dog, the family home and, finally, his beloved and now disconsolate grandfather. When the epic storm comes into the picture, readers find themselves as heartbroken as Li’l T when the family must leave Buddy behind in the evacuation.
Unlike other titles that deal with Katrina, this one eases up to the big event, enabling readers to establish a strong connection with the characters by slowly revealing how Li’l T and Buddy met and how Li’l T helped Buddy recover from the amputation of one of his legs. Twelve-year-old Li’l T offers an absorbing first-person account of a poor, tightly knit, multigenerational family’s experience in Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, focused through the lens of Li’l T’s relationship with a special dog named Buddy.
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