The Adventures of Big and Yellow

If you've ever loved a teddy bear, you know they have lives of their own. In The Adventures of Big and Yellow, Big Teddy and Yellow Teddy, two well-loved bears, learn about friendship, compassion, and change while exploring a deserted truck farm. They discover that friends come in many forms and colors, and can be found in the most unexpected places.

Big Teddy’s dream is to learn how to fly. Yellow Teddy prefers staying on the ground, meeting new friends, and finding adventure wherever it may be. Big and Yellow are two well-loved teddy bears whose move to their new home involves a rainy day and a mud puddle. What they are about to learn is that their new girl, Avery, lives in a house with a backyard that sits right next to an abandoned farm. The bears can’t wait to explore it, but getting there won’t be easy. And it doesn’t look like they’ll get much help from Avery’s purple duck, Violet. Their first obstacle is a Great Dane named Piper. The second is a block wall Avery’s father is building around their backyard. Together, Big and Yellow, with the help of a cocky crow named Diego, overcome each difficulty in their path. They finally arrive at the farmyard where they meet Pumpkin, a cantankerous old cat, and Charlie, a proud rooster, both of whom are waiting for the farmer to return. It is Gladys, a fearless mother skunk, and her eight kits, that bring all the animals together one night in the big red barn. This is a story about finding new homes, making new friends, and discovering that things are not always as they seem. As Yellow would say, “Change can turn out to be a good thing, don’t you think?”

Erika Nyhagen was born and raised in Los Angeles at a time when the city was expanding, and new suburbs were pushing out to the surrounding farmlands. People were putting up fences to separate these two worlds. As a young girl, an abandoned farm, much like the one in the story, was Erika’s playground. Erika’s life has always involved adventure. As a college student, she sailed around the world aboard a floating campus, the University of the Seven Seas. She was an airline stewardess for a major US airline, and she raised two children who have made exploring our world a part of their lives. She believes reading and learning should start young and last a lifetime. Inspired by her involvement with reading and student development at the elementary school level, Erika was instrumental in establishing a library story time program in her children’s school. Erika lives in northern California with her husband, their rescued Greyhound ‘Biscuit’, and Big and Yellow.