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Twelve year old Lucy has a number of toy bears. During her family's summer holiday, her bears come alive and this can only mean one thing. Trouble.
And from the top shelf of Lucy's bedroom they are watched by an old and wise but very lonely ventriloquist crow called Chris. He prides himself on never interfering in the bears' lives but will he be able to keep to that promise?
Especially as the bears' lives are in such a mess. With affairs, fights, lies, revelations and a wedding, things are certainly hotting up in Lucy's bedroom!
Excerpt:
The shelf shook precariously beneath me. There was the ominous grating as the screw slowly edged its way out of the wall. My long red legs, which draped over the edge of the shelf, started to quiver and I found myself gripping onto the shelf with my wings. But I wasn’t really frightened. No! No! No!
“Could you please stop that Little Toff? I know what you’re doing,” I patronisingly called down to him.
Over the brim of my shelf the cute toffee coloured face of the mischievous little bear appeared. Beaming at me with his most innocent look, Little Toff protested. “What? What was I doing?” But the innocence of his look was broken by the mischievous twitching of his furry little ears. We both knew what he had being trying to do and I wasn’t going to waste my precious relaxing time by clambering down from my shelf to point out that one side of the shelf was only a few more turns away from swinging downwards and depositing me on the shelf below. The first time that this had occurred had been vaguely amusing, at least for Little Toff and the giggling bears below and even I had begrudgingly appreciated the funny side but now, seven times later, it had become a little tedious.
Sighing I looked out across the bedroom with its hideously pink walls, pink carpet and pink eiderdown with pictures of bears on, covering the bed which was pushed right underneath the double glazed window. This was the room of bear mad 12 year old Lucy Partridge, who at present was taking a weeks holiday with her 14 year old brother and mother and father in the South of France. I suspected that during this time I would have to endure an uncountable number of Little Toff’s “hilarious” pranks.
Surprisingly Lucy had neglected to take any of her beloved bears on holiday with her, possibly due to a lack of her space in her parent’s suitcases. It had always puzzled me why someone who adored bears as much as she did had purchased a ventriloquist crow with bright orange fur, but purchased me she had. And for a while I had been centre of attention and she had played and played with me. Then after a while the novelty had predictably worn off and I had been relegated to the top shelf of her bedroom. At first I hadn’t minded; after having someone’s hand constantly up my rear I needed with a rest. And even now as I lay dormant on the top shelf, hardly ever played with, I didn’t really mind as I enjoyed watching the activities of Lucy’s bedroom unfold below me.
You see what Lucy doesn’t realise is that every time the house is deserted her bears come to life. And they take over the house and its surroundings; watching TV, bouncing on the bed, sunbathing (when sunny) on the roof that the window of Lucy’s bedroom opens out onto and playing various sports in the garden. The latter has to be undertaken very carefully so as to avoid giving the Partridge’s neighbours a shock as they look out of their windows. Indeed the Partridge’s first holiday, a number of years ago, had been very embarrassing. As one unfortunate bear had made his way downstairs he had unwittingly being picked up by the burglar alarm sensor and the burglar alarm had been triggered. Having received a call from one of their neighbours the Partridge’s had returned home immediately and still to this day were unaware of what had set off their alarm. But after searching the house the bears had successfully found the code to the burglar alarm in the back of Lucy’s diary and were now able to turn off the alarm during the Partridge’s holidays, being careful to remember to switch it back on before their return. One year they had returned home bewildered as to how the alarm had managed to turn itself off.
