# Pocket Bear

**Author:** Katherine Applegate
**Grade range:** Grades 4–5
**Page count:** 186
**Genre:** Juvenile Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9781250904379`
**ISBN-10:** `1250904374`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/pocket-bear
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Meet Pocket, created as a good luck charm for soldiers going into battle, whose bravery and loyalty lives on long after the war. From Katherine Applegate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Odder and The One and Only Ivan. Thimble-born from tip to toe, Pocket Bear remembers every moment of his becoming: the glimmering needle, the silken thread, the tender hands as each careful stitch brought him closer to himself. Born during the throes of WWI, he was designed to fit into the pocket of a soldier’s jacket, eyes sewn a bit higher than normal so that he always gazed upward. That way, glancing at his pocket, a soldier would see an endearing token of love from someone back home, and, hopefully, a good luck charm. Now, over a century later, Pocket serves as unofficial mayor of Second Chance

## Where this book is assigned

### Great Lakes Great Books Award

- **recommended** · 4th grade · Michigan — [source: Michigan Reading Association — Great Lakes Great Books Award 2026-27 nominee (official GLGBA nominee press release + nominees list, announced March 7, 2026 at the MRA Annual Conference; Michigan students vote through January 9, 2027) — 4-5 division](https://michiganreading.org/Great-Lakes-Great-Books)
- **recommended** · 5th grade · Michigan — [source: Michigan Reading Association — Great Lakes Great Books Award 2026-27 nominee (official GLGBA nominee press release + nominees list, announced March 7, 2026 at the MRA Annual Conference; Michigan students vote through January 9, 2027) — 4-5 division](https://michiganreading.org/Great-Lakes-Great-Books)

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