- Title: Paddington Marches On
- Author: Michael Bond, with drawings by Peggy Fortnum
- Year Published: 1964 (Houghton Mifflin)
- Year Purchased: 1978
- Source: According to the inscription in my mother’s hand, this entered my collection on Christmas Day (courtesy of Mommy + Daddy).
- About: I’m sure you know all about Paddington Bear. If you don’t, I have no idea what is wrong with you. He is one of the most visible children’s fictional characters of the last 50+ years. I loved his fetching coat and hat ensemble, and related to his greedy love of marmalade sandwiches. My favourite part from this book was always Paddington and the Cold Snap. I read it so many times that I knew it by heart. (If pressed, I could probably recite a line or two even now.) I still think he’s a pretty charming fellow. I hope my hypothetical future kids do, too.
- Motivation: Judging by the surviving books from my early childhood, I really loved bears. Or my family thought I did, which as a tiny tot amounted to the same thing. I still own volumes of Little Bear, Pooh Bear, and, of course, Paddington Bear.
- Times Read: Likely hundreds of times in the first year alone. This was one of the first ‘real’ (i.e. chapter) books I was given, and I couldn’t get enough of the fact that it contains far more text than illustrations.
- Random Excerpt/Page 9: “All the same, Paddington wasn’t the sort of bear to waste a good opportunity and a moment or so later he closed the door behind him and made his way down the side of the house as quickly as he could in order to investigate the matter. Apart from the prospect of playing snowballs he was particularly anxious to test his new Wellingtons which had been standing in his bedroom waiting for just such a moment ever since Mrs. Brown had given them to him at Christmas.”
- Happiness Scale: 9
A Year in Books/Day 182: Paddington Marches On
10
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 