A Teddy Bear Bedtime Story: The Suitcase Seat

Read this original teddy bear bedtime story together. A teddy bear travels inside an open suitcase and finds a familiar place in a different room. The complete story below includes a separate suggestion for adding one familiar detail when you tell it again.

The Suitcase Seat

Bramble the teddy bear sat inside an open suitcase while Jo packed for a visit. Around him lay striped pajamas, a pair of soft socks and a book with a bent corner. His seat was excellent.

Then Jo placed a sweater on top of the pajamas. Bramble leaned sideways. A shoe arrived beside his foot. The book slid against his nose.

"You need your own space," Jo said.

She moved the book to the front pocket and tucked the socks around Bramble's legs. When the suitcase closed, Jo lifted him out first and carried him under one arm. The suitcase seat, it turned out, was only for packing.

In the car Bramble sat beside Jo, with a grown-up checking that everyone was settled properly before they left. He watched hedges pass the window. Jo pointed out a red door, a bridge and a cow that looked as if it had forgotten what it was doing.

At Grandma's house the suitcase opened on the bedroom floor. Jo unpacked the pajamas and arranged them on the bed. Bramble waited on the folded sweater while the room filled with familiar things in unfamiliar places.

The book went beside the lamp. The socks went into a drawer. Jo put Bramble on the windowsill, but he leaned against the curtain and slowly tipped forward. She caught him and tried the chair. The chair was comfortable, although rather far from the bed.

"Where do you sit here?" Jo asked.

Grandma brought in a small cushion. "This used to go on your mother's chair."

Jo set it against the wall beside the pillow. Bramble fitted exactly in the hollow at its center. From there he could see the lamp, the book and the suitcase, now almost empty.

After supper Jo returned in the striped pajamas. She opened the book while Grandma sat on the chair. Bramble listened from his cushion as the familiar first sentence filled the new room.

Later, Jo tucked him beside her. The curtain moved slightly near the window. The suitcase stood closed beneath the chair, ready for another packing day.

Bramble had traveled past a red door, a bridge and a thoughtful cow. Now his whole view was one corner of a pillow, the edge of Jo's sleeve and the small, comfortable dip waiting in an old cushion.

Adapt one detail for your listener

Use a familiar destination in place of Grandma's house if that suits your family. Keep the bear traveling with the child and the grown-up, rather than becoming separated. Your child can choose which pajamas make the bear's seat. For a bedtime away from home, the final windowsill can become a bedside chair or another comfortable spot in the room.

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