Threadbear

Gallaz's (with Roberto Innocenti the coauthor of Rose Blanche ) delicate, haunting tale is relayed by Threadbear, a teddy found by a kind old man who rescues discarded bears ``from the gutters and garbage cans.'' Threadbear explains that the man's stuffed menagerie is very quiet at first: ``We sat together for hours without speaking a word or even looking at one another. We were all trying to remember our pasts.'' As they begin to recall the children ``who had hugged and hit them,'' the teddy bears come back to life; they begin to share their tenderest memories with each other. And then the old man tells his bears that he, too, occasionally mistreated the teddies he owned as a child. His words gently deliver Gallaz's significant message: ``I finally realized that I had hit the teddy bears not because of anything they'd done wrong, but because I was sick or angry or just in a bad mood. . . . I'm sorry.'' In the end, the man gives all the healed teddies (except Threadbear, whom he keeps) to a girl who appears capable of cherishing them. Some youngsters may find Gallaz's poetic story enigmatic, but the distinctive, faintly bittersweet mood he establishes has its own eloquence. Vincent's (illustrator of the Ernest and Celestine series) two-color, effectively sketchy drawings share Gallaz's subtle and lingering power. All ages. (Nov.)