When Doc the bear arrives at the dump from his former home in a children’s hospital, he’s not sure what kind of life awaits him. But the friends he finds there are determined to make his new home a welcoming one. In the gentle, classic style of The Velveteen Rabbit, the toys discover what it’s like to live on their own.

Julian Fellowes’s witty text and S. D. Schindler’s lovely, intricate art combine to make a beautiful gift book, sure to strike a chord with any child—or adult—who has ever loved a stuffed toy.

"Fellowes, a British actor, director, producer and Oscar-winning screenplay writer (for Gosford Park), presents a leisurely paced story, noteworthy for its polished delivery of a familiar theme — the afterlife of the discarded or lost toy. For years Doc, a teddy bear accessorized with a stethoscope, has comforted children in a hospital dayroom. His generosity of spirit makes him chief among 'what the nurses referred to as the 'cuddly toys,' although there was an element of impertinence in this which most of the occupants of the [toy] basket found rather irritating.' But after the hospital hastily spruces up the dayroom in preparation for a much-publicized royal visit, Doc winds up at a dump, grateful to have escaped a worse fate. The rest of the plot revolves around Doc's adventures with his new friends, also toys separated from children and coping with their diminished status in various recognizably human ways. All rally when a threadbare stuffed rabbit arrives, inadvertently tossed into the trash instead of put into the van when his owner's family moves to a new house, and together the toys come up with a risky scheme to reunite rabbit and boy. Schindler's (Don't Fidget a Feather) full-page ink-and-watercolor illustrations and his line art match the old-fashioned storytelling mood: he renders the toys and the settings with fine detail, using a realistic style to bridge the fantastic elements in the narrative. The abundance and richness of the pictures enhance this title's attractiveness as a read-aloud, as does the elevated vocabulary — the book offers a rare combination of the soothing and stimulating. Ages 4-up." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Fellowes wrote the script for that wonderful, autumnal, English-country-house whodunit 'Gosford Park,' so it's no surprise that one of the two things distinguishing this gentle tale is its mellifluous language; the other is Schindler's illustrations. Unlike the movie, though, the book is graced by a simple plot: A tattered teddy bear named Doc, who has lived for years in a children's hospital, is... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) thrown out in a 'spruce-up' and finds himself at the dump, where he befriends several other lost or abandoned toys and even gets a chance to use his medical skills. Sentimentality is kept at bay by just the right amounts of suspense, sadness and old-fashioned, stiff-upper-lip decorum. 'It was a dark evening, and there was a slight drizzle that soon soaked his fur, but as he lay on top of the rubbish Doc could not resist a sense of elation. He felt, as he wriggled beneath some surgical wadding and a copy of the Guardian ... that, all things considered, he had withstood his testing with an admirable lack of panic.'

Elizabeth Ward can be reached at warde(at symbol)washpost.com."

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ward, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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JULIAN FELLOWES is an actor,writer, director, and producer.His script for Gosford Park was awarded an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and his novel, Snobs, was a bestseller on both continents.Most recently, he wrote the book of the stage musical Mary Poppins.

S. D. SCHINDLER has illustrated many books for children, including  Whittington (aNewbery Honor book) and Don’t Fidget a Feather (an ALA Notable Book). He lives in Philadelphia.