Celebrate 50 years of America's favorite teddy bear with brand-new recordings narrated by Academy Award winner Viola Davis!Corduroy: This story of a small teddy bear waiting on a department store shelf for a child's friendship has appealed to young readers generation after generation.
Corduroy Lost and Found: Corduroy the teddy bear slips out very early one morning to get a birthday present for Lisa. He spies what he thinks is a yellow balloon up in the sky and goes chasing after it, thinking that would be perfect for her. But when the sun rises, the "balloon" disappears. And now Corduroy is lost. Can he reuinte with his best friend and find her the perfect birthday present?
Corduroy Takes a Bow: When Lisa takes Corduroy to the theater for the very first time, it's so magnificent and exciting that he just can't help heading out on his own to explore. From the orchestra pit to the prop table to the dressing rooms, Corduroy sees it all. Could there be a place for Corduroy on stage, too? Author and narrator Viola Davis uses her own experience as an Emmy, Tony, and Oscar Award-winning actress to imbue Corduroy's adventure with all the magic of the stage.
Viola Davis is a critically revered, award-winning actress of film, television and theater. She is the first black actress to win Tony (
Fences & King Hedley II), Oscar (
Fences) and Emmy (
How to Get Away with Murder) awards. Davis is currently starring in the fourth season of "How to Get Away with Murder," a role for which she became the first African American actress to receive the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series." In 2012, Davis and her husband founded their production company, JuVee Productions, with its focus being on giving a voice to the voiceless through strong, impactful and culturally relevant narratives. Davis will next star in Steve McQueen's "Widows," alongside Colin Farrell and Liam Neeson. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and six-year-old daughter (to whom she reads
Corduroy aloud!).
Don Freeman (1908-1978) was the author and illustrator of many popular books for children, including
Corduroy,
A Pocket for Corduroy, and the Caldecott Honor Book
Fly High, Fly Low. During his career as an artist, sketching impressions of Broadway shows for the
New York Times and
The Herald Tribune, he was introduced to the world of children's literature when William Saroyan asked him to illustrate several books. Soon after, he began to write and illustrate his own books, a career he settled into comfortably and happily. Through his writing, he was able to create his own theater: "I love the flow of turning the pages, the suspense of what's next. Ideas just come at me and after me. It's all so natural. I work all the time, long into the night, and it's such a pleasure. I don't know when the time ends. I've never been happier in my life!" He created many beloved characters in his lifetime, perhaps the most beloved among them a stuffed, overall-wearing bear named Corduroy.
B.G. Hennessy grew up in Wantagh on Long Island, NY. At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, she majored in fine art and learned how to design, print and bind handmade books. She also took courses in Children's Literature. The combination of form and content in the picture book format fascinated her and after graduation she headed for NYC where she worked for 17 years in children's book publishing as a designer and art director. She is the author of
Road Builders and
The First Night, as well as many books starring Corduroy, the loveable toy bear created by Don Freeman. She now lives with her family in Arizona
