Teddy Bear Doctor -- Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Storey Publishing. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Does your child watch Doc McStuffins? Or just like to play doctor with his or her stuffed animals? This book is perfect for him or her!! Hazel has two or three doctors kits (I think one is a veterinarian kit). She has always liked to play doctor and often dreams of being a toy doctor like Doc McStuffins. She really wanted the Doc McStuffins kit because she hoped when she pushed the stethoscope button Ducky would come alive. When we take our cats to the veterinarian, Hazel gets to listen to the cats and her own, and the veterinarian's and my and whomever will let her heart beat with our veterinarian's stethoscope. She loves going!! Needless to say when I saw Teddy Bear Doctor: A Let's Make and Play Book by Deanna F. Cook I knew Hazel would love it.

Now this book is full of ideas to make your own doctor tools (including a lab coat) as well as your own stuffed animal clinic. It even has stickers and signs to help with the details. We gathered the materials to make the stethoscope, but never quite got to it. I must also say that I barely was allowed to see the book once I showed it to Hazel. She took it and could not wait to get started. I told her I would help her the next day with some of the projects, but she did not wait. She did almost all of this on her own, and it is that easy!!

Photo taken after 5 p.m.

The book includes signs to hang up. She hung up the office hours are 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. but on the other side it includes open for emergencies. It also included quite a bit for the front desk. It had the signs, patient files, treat stickers, check-in cards, appointment cards and patient label bracelets. Hazel also made a paper computer and added other things she thought would be needed.

Then she set up the exam room. There is a sign for the exam room as well as various animal x-rays and stickers for medicine, oils and vitamins. Plus there are forms for the check-up and prescriptions. It also suggested getting a toothbrush for the animals, so we picked some up at the Dollar Tree and they have puppies on them. I cut out the doctor hat and nurse hat for her and put them together. She covered some ottomans with her sleeping bag as the exam table.

There is also the recovery room. Her nurse, Ducky, is in charge in the recovery room. Instead of making cages from boxes I suggested she use her toy boxes with windows.

She loves this set up. She actually had it all over the family room for about a month before we made her clean it up. She is having such a great time with this book. We already had the doctor's coat and doctor's set, but there are tutorials to make them from recycled things (old t-shirt and containers). She started to make the syringe craft but misplaced one of the parts I had found her and never completed it. She has all the medicine syringes from when she was an infant so she uses those. 

This book is great for any child with an imagination and who likes to make their own toys. It has hours of play involved and things that can work for a long time. It is also perfect for a teacher who wants to set up a station of stuffed animal clinic. It provides sticker band-aids and tutorials to make everything needed besides the stuffed animals. It is a lot of fun and we highly recommend this one!