Pocket bear

When haughty former street cat Zephyrina finds abandoned, down-on-their-luck toys, she takes them to the apartment where she lives with mother-daughter duo Elizaveta and Dasha, refugees from Ukraine. At night, the family's toy collection awakens, roaming free under Zephyrina's watchful eye and the guidance of her best friend, stuffed teddy Pocket Bear. "Thimble-born" more than a century ago, Pocket was designed to fit in the front uniform pouch of an American soldier and provide comfort in the trenches during WWI. Now the wise "sarge" of this home of misfit toys, Pocket readily accepts Zephyrina's newest find: an ursine plush with a mysterious past, which she spotted covered in tomato sauce and pasta behind an Italian restaurant. Via attentive and nuanced renderings of the apartment's unique residents and the humans who care for them, Newbery Medalist Applegate weaves a gently sophisticated tale that considers the trauma brought about by war on those forced to endure it. Zephyrina's grudging first-person POV injects humor into tender and eloquent narrative sequences, which Santoso (Evelyn Witch Gets a Pet) expertly complements with detailed grayscale illustrations depicting moments such as Pocket's loving creation and a midnight conference of toys. Across brief yet rousing chapters, this treasure of a book evokes laughter, tears, and introspection in equal measure. Ages 8--12. Author's agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Heirloom Literary. (Sept.)

Narrator Zephyrina, a crafty cat (she prefers "tiger trapped in a kitty costume"), goes out at night looking for abandoned toys to deliver to the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured, operated by a girl named Dasha. Zephyrina sees herself as the "Robin Hood of felines" and brings her findings to her best friend, Pocket Bear, who provides order and emotional support to the newly rescued toys, which come to life at midnight. One evening Zephyrina finds a bear in a trash can, but Berwon is no ordinary toy. His background makes him a target of an unscrupulous toy dealer, and it takes every ounce of Zephyrina's cunning to keep him safe. Although the story's setting is contemporary, the characters' manner of speaking and the featured toys' connections to the past also give this novel a historical feel. Middle-grade veteran Applegate (most recently The One and Only Family, rev. 7/24) effortlessly weaves a believable animal fantasy while providing a fair amount of information about war: Pocket Bear was created to comfort an American soldier on the battlefield in WWI, while Berwon belonged to a soldier from Germany; Dasha's dad died in the war in Ukraine, and her leg "was badly injured when a bomb hit her house." An author's note explains the novel's origins and more about the toys that inspired Pocket Bear and Berwon. Marva Anne HintonNovember/December 2025 p.60 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Zephyrina the cat, the "Robin Hood of felines," rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives. Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina's rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor--the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don't know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903--and if so, he's worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate's writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso's enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other. Poignant and heartwarming. (author's note)(Fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.