Changes

There was a girl who had a white bear, with gleaming soft fur and a magic key that makes him sing a song. The bear is somewhat conceited and thinks himself perfect: so perfect in his finery that when an old pink rabbit asks him what his name is, he says it's "Do-not-touch". Alas, the girl doesn't know that: she wants to play with the bear and she takes him to the beach, to the garden and splashes him with paint when doing his picture. After a bath, the bear isn't very white nor very soft any more, and after his broken music box is taken out and stitched with black thread, he's just any old bear. The girl loves him even more - after all he's more cuddly now - but the bear can't stop grieving for his lost finery and being admired by everybody. Only when the bear is lost in a department store and realises he might not see the girl again, does he understands the true meaning of love - and now, having been reunited with the girl ''the empty place inside him is full of happiness''.

The illustrations to ''The Perfect Bear'' are also outstanding: one rarely sees artwork in this style in picture books: realistic oil paintings resembling slightly blurred photos, very grown up illustrations in some ways and yet both dreamy and clear in the way childhood memories can be. I didn't actually like those illustrations that much, but somehow, they work brilliantly with the text to create an exceptional picture book that's definitely worth reading (and as I suspect most adults will shed a tear or two, I suggest reading it by yourself before reading aloud).