Pocket Bear - Katherine Applegate - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Katherine Applegate

ILLUSTRATOR: Charles Santoso

GENRE: Middle-Grade Fantasy

PUBLICATION DATE: September 9, 2025

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A middle-grade fantasy featuring many toys full of heart and one cat full of ‘cattitude’. Lovely story and mostly loveable characters. Great balance of fun and seriousness. Highlights the pain associated with war then and now. Much recommended.

Plot Preview:

Pocket Bear “became” from a thimble during WWI, when he was created to fit into the pocket of a soldier’s jacket to offer comfort and love. Now, more than a century later, Pocket Bear is the unofficial head of the ‘Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured’, a place where its two humans – a mother-daughter pair who are refugees from Ukraine – refurbish discarded or unwanted soft toys and give them a fresh lease of life with a new owner. Accompanied by his best friend, a cat named Zephyrina who is the prime source of the toys, Pocket Bear ensures that everything in the Second Chances Home runs smoothly. However, one day, Zephyrina walks in with a toy bear covered in sauce. This triggers several unexpected events.

The story comes to us in the first-person perspective of… surprise, surprise… Zephyrina!

See the adorable bear nestled within the embrace of a smiling cat on the cover? That was my one and only reason to grab this book. I had no idea about the storyline and hence no specific expectations from the book. As such, several things surprised me in the content, mostly in a good way.

Bookish Yays:

🧸 Pocket Bear, who I thought would just be a cute and cuddly little bear but turned out to be a wise and understanding century-old war veteran. What a fascinating character! Because of his age, his behaviour is marked by old-time good manners. There are some other memorable toy characters as well, reminiscent of Toy Story. Love how Pocket Bear calls the other toys his ‘troops’!

🧸 The truth behind pocket bears, who were stuffed bears actually made during WWI for soldiers. All these WW books I’ve read and not one of them mentioned this fact!

🧸 Zephyrina the cat. (Whoops! I mean, “Zephyrina the tiger trapped in a kitty costume! The Robinhood of felines!” 😂) Love her to bits! She is the most cattilicious kitty I have ever read in fiction. Despite her clear cattitude, she defers to Pocket Bear and his wisdom, which I really enjoyed reading.

🧸 The first-person narrative coming from Zephyrina instead of Pocket Bear. A great choice to have the cat as the narrator as she is in a better position to tell us everything that transpires inside and outside the house, unlike Pocket Bear who is obviously restricted in his mobility given that he’s a toy. Zephyrina’s POV offers us her *expert* observations on the toys as well as other characters such as the dogs and the humans.

🧸 Zephyrina’s vocabulary. Our kitty narrator is far too prodigious in her word usage, which somehow suits her persona perfectly. I can actually imagine a cat using such bombastic language just to ensure that those around them are enthralled.

🧸 The concept of the Second Chances home. Awesome in every way!

🧸 The humans running the Second Chances Home: Elizaveta and her daughter Dasha who needs crutches. Their being war refugees from Ukraine and still pursuing hope in their new life in the USA adds a touch of poignancy to their arc.

🧸 The historical facts interspersed within the narrative, be it about various stuffed bears or WWI or a little about the Ukraine war. The content never goes deep into the whys of the wars, keeping the tone suitable for children. At one point, I would have considered stories of war too brutal for kids, but with the world being what it is today, perhaps such stories can teach kids to not repeat the mistakes we adults make by spreading hatred so shamelessly.

🧸 The humour, partly thanks to Zephyrina’s snarky personality and partly due to the other non-human characters (especially Goofus the dog.) Helps balance the overall tone.

🧸 The B&W illustrations. Not as many as I would have liked but still a delight to behold.

Bookish Okays:

🐈 This might not bother kids, but the chapters were extremely short for my liking. A couple of them barely had 3-4 sentences.

🐈 While the cover is stunning, it somehow leads to the impression that the bear is at the centre of the narrative. The title also creates the same assumption. While I was okay with having a feline narrator instead of an ursine toy, kids who pick the book specifically for the bear might be a little disappointed.

Bookish Nays:

😼 Zephyrina is also called Kleptocat because of her habit of stealing toys. But she justifies her tendency strongly, saying stealing for the purpose of redistribution instead of hoarding is justified. Eh, no… Not a good idea to include in a children’s book.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 4 hrs 18 min, is narrated by the outstanding January LaVoy. She uses the most amazing voices for every single character, though perhaps her voicing of Zephyrina deserves the greatest applause. I mean, she even meows like a cat!!! 😻 I’d strongly recommend the audio version just to hear her nail the performance.

The only issue I had with the audio version was the short chapters. While chapter lengths don’t affect me in general, listening to the chapter number after every minute or so becomes somewhat distracting. And of course, you will miss out on the illustrations.

Overall, this book turned out to be a pleasant surprise in many ways. The cover led me to expect a cute story about a little bear, but it turned out to have so much more, in terms of plot, characters, fun, as well as life lessons.

This is not my first book by this reputed children’s author, and it won't be the last.

Definitely recommended, despite the whole stealing arc. This is officially meant for middle graders, but given the characters and the tone, it reads a bit younger, so it can work for ages 6-10.

My thanks to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Feiwel & Friends for providing the DRC of “Pocket Bear” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.