A few years after his creator passed away, Paddington Bear is about to make a comeback.
HarperCollins Children’s Books (HCCB) will publish a recently discovered Paddington Bear story titled Paddington’s Easter Egg Hunt. The publisher will release the book in March.
Paddington Bear’s creator, Michael Bond, and Bond’s daughter, Karen Jankel, wrote the story years ago. Jankel collaborated with her father on a previous Paddington story, Paddington Goes to the Hospital.
“When I first re-read this story that we wrote together many years ago it brought back some very happy memories of working with my father,” Jankel said. “I’m sure he would have been as delighted as I am that, together with Bob Alley’s charming illustrations, it’s been turned into such a lovely picture book.”
Paddington Bear’s beginning
Bond, who passed away in 2017, wrote the first Paddington Bear story after Christmas shopping in 1956. However, seven publishers rejected Bond’s manuscript before William Collins & Sons paid the author £75 for the book.
That first book, A Bear Called Paddington, came out on Oct. 13, 1958.
The story introduces us to a brown bear in London’s Paddington station wearing a blue duffle coat and red floppy hat. Hanging around the bear’s neck is a tag reading, “Please look after this bear.” The Brown family comes across the bear, who they name Paddington.
Paddington Bear became a beloved children’s character.
Bond wrote 14 Paddington Bear books, which have sold more than 35 million copies in at least 40 languages.
And, come March, a new book joins their ranks.
Comments / 0