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Corduroy was one of my childhood favorites and I still love it! I am struggling to write an adequate review, and since I am pressed for time I will just say for now that I love everything about it! I feel all the emotions are conveyed so well, from Corduroy's loneliness to the girl's sense of finding a "kindred spirit" in the bear, to Corduroy's wish to find the button to make himself more appealing, to his glorious adventure (oh, how I loved that escalator "mountain" and the many fabulous mattresses, and tugging and tugging to get that button off!), to the fright with the night watchman and finally Lisa coming back with her own money to bring Corduroy home and sewing on the button, not because she felt anything was wrong with him, but so he would feel more comfortable. I love the end, with the realization of what it feels like to have a true friend. And the illustrations have always captivated me!

I am so grateful a GoodReads friend alerted me to the 40th Anniversary edition. It is just wonderful! I love the format (with the letters between Don and his editor being "real" letters you can pull out of envelopes, and facsimile versions at that) and the glimpse into the writer-editor relationship. The manuscript draft where his editor makes her comments is so enlightening and would interest anyone who is or is interested in being a writer, I think (it's great to see that even genius authors like Don Freeman needed that collaboration and other insight to make their work truly sparkle). The only thing I didn't really like in the format is that it seemed really jarring to go from the vivid correspondence to turning the page and seeing it covered with newspaper clipping of Freeman's obituary. Though it did provide some great insight into more facets of his life, I guess I would have liked something a bit gentler. I also would have liked to know a bit more about the children to whom he dedicated the book and spoke of in his correspondence (I guess they might be relations of the editor, perhaps?) All in all, though, I highly recommend the 40th Anniversary edition to anyone who is a fan of the book or looking at a bygone era of author-editor relationships.