Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Soft and cuddly, Tells stories when I don't have the time |
| Disadvantages: |
The scrappy peice of cloth that hides the battery compartment |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
I love reading to my children, seeing the joy that stories can bring to a child really makes my day. Sometimes though I find I'm just too busy to sit and read with them. You know what it's like, you've got a million and one things to do and the kids just want a story.
Now on occasions I have been a little bit naughty and dropped everything to sit down with a good book, after all, the chores can wait, the early years with your children can't. On other occasions however I've found it impossible to stop what I'm doing, at teatimes for example so the stories have had to wait.
Now my daughter Roxanne is 9 years old and has an extremely advanced reading age, although she does still enjoy it when I read to her she is quite capable of getting lost in a story herself. My son Brandon is another matter all together; he's 2 and can't really do much with a book apart from look at the funny pictures and chew it!!
This caused one or two tantrums when he wanted to look at a favourite picture book or hear a story when I was too busy to read with him and although Roxanne would offer to show him her books she soon got fed up.
The other problem I had was bedtime; I would tuck Brandon up, wind up his
musical light then go down stairs. This was okay for a while until his toy wound down then he would start to scream. This didn't happen every night of course but it was happening on a regular basis.
What I needed I decided was something that would keep him occupied until he was tired enough to sleep. This meant of course that it couldn't be a wind up toy and I really didn't want anything that had to be plugged in as I didn't want trailing wires all over his bedroom floor.
I had a look in my
Argos catalogue as I originally planned on buying him one of those musical light toys that project pictures onto the ceiling but after looking at them all though I realised that they weren't really what I was after. For one, he already had a musical lightshow by the side of his bed so it seemed pointless spending money on another one and looking at them I saw that they were mainly aged from birth so I wanted something more suitable for his age.
I really wanted something a little more stimulating for him so I continued to look through the catalogue in the hope of finding something. This is when I came across the Story Telling Bear and I knew it was exactly what I was looking for.
Anyone who knows me will know that Bear In The Big Blue House is Brandon's favourite television programme and for those of you who have read my previous op I apologise for repeating myself.
Disney's Bear In The Big Blue House is a programme aimed at pre-school children. The star of the show as you might well guess is a loveable huge orange all singing all dancing bear created by non other then Jim Henson.
So finding this particular toy was somewhat of a bonus, not only was it ideal for keeping him occupied it was also a
character that he already knew and loved.
First off let me tell you about the quality of this toy, to say I'm impressed is an understatement. The bear is soft, it's fluffy and it's extremely well made. As with all Fisher-Price toys you can tell that a lot of care and attention has gone into the design of this toy, there are no eyes to come off in eager little mouths and no hard noses to hurt little teeth on. Now you may think that this is common practice with baby toys but believe me I've seen enough badly made toys in my time as a mum to know the difference.
As for the look of the bear, well again no corners have been cut. I've seen some merchandise that bore absolutely no resemblance to the characters they were meant to be but with this one, well let's just say that Brandon recognised it straight away.
Bear is approximately 23 cms in height and is posed in a sitting position (best position for reading a good book if you ask me) He looks all comfy with his back and shoulders hunched over and his head forward slightly.
In his hands he holds a big blue cloth book; this again is really wonderful to look at. There are little darker blue stars on the front cover and a bold yellow title which says 'Big Blue Story Book'. On the back cover is a picture of Bears face accompanied by the words 'Jim Henson's Bear In The Big Blue House' the book has yellow stitching around the edges of the cover and even has a spine.
As the book is held open by Bear we get to see the contents, this is another piece of cloth; white this time to represents the pages of the book. On the pages in bold blue writing the story starts with 'One Day... The rest of the page is filled with blue squiggly lines in place of the words and at the end of the second page we have, well what do you think? That's right '...The End'
Looking at Bears face you can see he enjoys reading, almost as much as me I suspect. With a few bits of colourful felt and an open mouth they have somehow managed to create an expression of fun and happiness.
Sitting on Bears left shoulder is his small blue mouse friend Tutter. He's a jolly little fellow with a squeaky happy voice (well he is a mouse) Now he is slightly different from the rest of the toy, instead of being soft and fluffy he's a harder plastic, I guess he's made of plastic so that he'll sit upright on Bears shoulder.
So how safe is this you may well ask? Wasn't I telling you not so long ago about Bear being all soft, cuddly and safe? Well yes I was but this is the exception. The plastic although hard is soft enough so as not to hurt or injure a child and although it could cause problems if swallowed this is highly unlikely. You see it sits on a small base, which in turn sits on a larger base that is sewn securely inside Bears shoulder. So in order for a child to work this loose they would literally have to rip the bears shoulder out.
So what does this toy do? Does he just sit there looking all nice and cuddly? Nah of course not, you'll know by the name of this toy that he does actually tell stories. Oh and what wonderful stories he tells too, all about fun, adventures and games and best of all his head sways from side to side as he reads from his book. There are 20 stories in all each one lasting for around 30 to 40 seconds, not long enough for a child to fall asleep I know but long enough to hold the attention of a very young child. As each story ends Tutter says something in his squeaky little voice along the lines of 'Ah, I love a happy ending' followed by a little giggle.
If after a story ends the toy is left alone Bear asks if you want to hear another story, he then tells you to squeeze his foot. One quick squeeze and off he goes again with another tale. If of course you do nothing then he says 'Bye now' and switches himself off saving the batteries in the meantime.
Now the beauty of this is that the child can do this himself, Brandon had this for less then an hour when he worked out what to do. There is no volume control on this toy but it is fairly quiet so you won't be throwing it across the room, or hiding the batteries after an hour or two of switching it on.
My only complaint with this toy is the battery compartment or rather the way it is hidden within the bear. The compartment is quite large and is firmly held inside the body part of the toy. This is then covered by a flap of material which Bear sits on. Now although secured by a velcro strip it really isn't strong enough to hold it shut. Brandon is forever pulling it open and chewing on the flap of material making it soggy and a bit worse for wear. This in turn makes it an ever worse fit.
There are no safety problems with regards to this as the battery cover is screwed securely in place but it does spoil the overall look of the toy, it's not too bad when it's sat on a table or on the floor as Bear does actually sit on it but as soon as Brandon decides to carry it around there's a piece of scraggy cloth hanging down. I think the easy solution to this will be for me to put one or two stitches into it to keep it closed but to be honest I shouldn't really have to do this.
The toy takes 3 AA size batteries which do come included with the toy for display purposes. I would normally advise anyone buying a toy with batteries included to buy a spare set just in case they run out within an hour or two but with this one I really don't think there should be any need. We've had this since Christmas and the original ones are still going strong.
So has this solved my problem? To an extent yes. I put Brandon to bed as usual, switch his musical light on. Sit Bear at the head of his bed and press his paw. The story begins and Brandon's happy.
Of course we do still get the odd night where nothing will help him sleep and then he throws Bear out of his bed and screams for England but these nights are getting fewer and further between. Most nights we can hear him talking to Bear as he listens to a story until finally they both go quiet and we know that he's fallen asleep with the help of a big cuddly Bear.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Story Telling Bear priced at £19.99 and is suitable for children aged 18 months and over.
