This was not what I was expecting from a middle grade novel. I loved how it delved into humanity and the ways in which we are unkind. I loved that Daniel Kraus took a look into the ways our environment plays a role in our behaviors. This book also pointed out how we are destroying our planet which I think is great insight for children to start thinking about becoming environmental activists. It was so fun to read and I am thinking of continuing the series.

If you are wanting your kids to read this, I think it is a great book, but if you would prefer them not to read something so dark, I would probably recommend a lighter book.

Discovering Kraus this year is one of the few great things to happen to me in 2020. This book is his 4th release of the year and his range just astounds me, but at this point I'll read ANYTHING by him. Even if it's a middle-grader book about Teddy Bears.

This book follows a group of teddies that wake up in a garbage dump. These teddies are clueless as to how they ended up there, but learn that there might be more menacing forces at play...

This book is so much fun, but also really depressing (in a good way). This book is full of honest truths about the world and our place in it. It handles some pretty heavy themes such as capitalism and death in a mostly light way, but the teddies are hopefully comforting enough to keep your kids from getting traumatized 😅

The teddies are incredibly loveable of course and I even found myself claiming a favorite (Reginald). Each teddy not only have a unique color, but a specific personality. This made for some fun dynamics and an interesting perspective on each danger they face.

Lastly, I want to praise the beautiful illustrations in this book. They give me major Tim Burton vibes and are just a cool addition to this story. While not always abundant, they do add a unique layer to the story!

I'm obviously not the target audience, but my inner-child loved it and I'm sure I would've loved it as a kid! Can't wait for the future entries in this saga!

DNF at 49%

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

I was really intrigued by the concept for They Threw Us Away, and thought it would be an interesting book to read with my son, but I was WRONG. This book is morbid. It's not just creepy and disturbing, but seriously screwed up. I honestly don't think anyone should read this to their child, or let their child read it on their own. Maybe once they're older... MAYBE. If an author wants to address mental health in a book, I support that 100%. Unfortunately, it felt like the author was going for shock value instead of representing a character's mental illness in a way that children would understand.

If you've read this book, you know I'm talking about Sugar. Her box was damaged somehow which resulted in her head being dented on one side. The damage wasn't just physical, but also mental. She very clearly struggled during conversations, and the other bears had to prevent her from getting hurt, and occasionally stop her from hurting herself (which she does in a VERY disturbing way). My husband and I try to be honest with our kids about everything (even when we have to simplify it for their ages), but there was no good way for me to explain to my son why she (view spoiler) Sugar's self-harm may have been the worst part of this book, but there were a lot of other scenarios that required lengthy explanations on my part. It simply wasn't worth the effort, so we moved on to something else.

The story also wasn't believable. The bears could smell and see, but they couldn't feel when they were being devoured by ants? Why were they sentient? What were the rules? Where were the explanations? There were too many questions and not enough answers. You would really have to suspend your disbelief to get through most of this book, and just ignore all of the inconsistencies and contradictions. I wish the author had developed the story more, so the bears being alive made sense. Side note: the concept of "forever sleep" was disturbing, and I have no idea why the bears wanted it to happen. (★★☆☆☆)

They Threw Us Away could be put in a classroom library. I wouldn't use it as a read aloud, but there are niche group of students that would really enjoy reading this story. I found this story to be a bit odd and not very engaging.

This is an adorably heart-wrenching story of a teddy bear that gets thrown away and has to figure out how to live in the dump instead of on the shelf where he waited for a little kid. He and his new friends from the dump decide they deserve a family and set off on an adventure to get back to the store.

I'm going to kick things off with the book I feel is better for older tweens. They Threw Us Away is being billed as "Lord of the Flies meets Toy Story", and it's a pretty accurate description. A blue teddy bear wakes up in a garbage dump and frees himself; he notes his name tag, which says his name is Buddy, and he sees other boxes of teddies on the pile and works to free the others before rats, seagulls, or a terrifying machine gets to them. Together, Buddy and the other teddies - Sunny, Sugar, Horace, and Reginald - put their memories together: they were in the Store, waiting for children to take them home and love them. Once they are loved by a child, teddies fall into the Forever Sleep. So what happened? The group sets out to get some answers, but they learn that the world is a scary place; even scarier than the Dump, and that the answers they seek may not be the answers they want to hear.

The first in a planned trilogy, They Threw Us Away is bleak and often brutal. There are graphic depictions of teddy bear death, which, when I say it, may sound like something to laugh off, but reading it is pretty horrific. Younger readers and more sensitive readers may be upset by the unrelenting danger and horror. Black and white illustrations throughout reinforce the story. There are some loose ends that we can expect future books to pick up on. Each Teddy has a distinct personality and struggles with their circumstances accordingly: Buddy is kind and gentle; the peacemaker and ersatz leader; Sugar, whose damaged box meant she suffered some bumps, too, is flighty and quirky; Sunny is a conflicted character with flashes of rage and a desire to keep the group together; Reginald is a serious, sagelike teddy, and Horace is fearful. Give this to your dedicated horror fans, and save it for your higher elementary readers and middle schoolers.

Creepy! Can’t wait for the next book in the series. Usually steer clear of anthropomorphic stories yet this one had enough edge to sustain my interest.

The beginning of this book made me think of Inside Out, with all of the characters having distinct personalities. and obviously Toy Story with the thrown away toys. While as an adult, I didn't find this book scary, I think it will hit closer to home with children. The amount of suspense was compelling, and the characters' struggle was great. The cliffhanger ending will surely bring kids back for the second book in the series, and there were lots of unanswered questions that I'm eager to to have answered.

I was conflicted about this book. So much of it is good, even if dark which is what I suspected it would be.
I didn't like the Forever Sleep term...it just was...awful.

This is a noir adventure...

They Threw Us Away by Daniel Kraus
Publication Date: September 15, 2020 - Keep an eye out!
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Description from NetGalley...
“Welcome to The Teddies Saga, a gripping new middle grade trilogy from New York Times-bestselling author Daniel Kraus and illustrator Rovina Cai.

Buddy wakes up in the middle of a garbage dump, filled with a certain awareness: he’s a teddy bear; he spent time at a Store waiting for his future to begin; and he is meant for the loving arms of a child. Now he knows one more thing: Something has gone terribly wrong.

Soon he finds other discarded teddies—Horace, Sugar, Sunny, and Reginald. Though they aren’t sure how their luck soured, they all agree that they need to get back to the Store if they’re ever to fulfill their destinies. So, they embark on a perilous trek across the dump and into the outer world. With ravenous rats, screeching gulls, and a menacing world in front of them, the teddies will need to overcome insurmountable challenges to find their way home.”
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Thank you to @NetGalley @macmillanbooks @henryholtbooks for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
I liked this book. As an adult reader, I was pleasantly surprised. This book was supposed to be middle-grade (because of the Teddies? - I don’t know). But, it can also be YA and adult. It’s not horror, more thriller. It had violent and anxiety-driven moments. Think Watership Down, The Lord of the Flies and Toy Story all rolled into one. I thought it was a fantastic read and concept, that I had to tell the story to my husband. It was dark, gruesome, funny and fluffy all at the same time. If I were a child, this would be my review: “It’s so FLUFFY! Oh, but it’s kinda scary.” Looking forward to the next book.

Read as an E book. Please note that I am not finished with this book yet, so I will not give away the ending. I struggle to find a place for this book as it is not easy defined. Is it YA, is it appropriate for Middle Schoolers, or is it an adult book? The cover looks similar to The Kurdles by Robert Goodin. But, it foreshadows something far more sinister. In fact, the cover and the art included has dystopian undertones. Right away the book starts off fast as the teddy bear, Buddy, wakes up in a landfill, and to survive, must navigate his way out of the gull infested wasteland. Then there is the threat of dismemberment, decapitation, and gauging one's own eyes out and this story is almost a horror. This is a cautionary tale of trust and betrayed trust. Yet, at the heart of this book, it is a story of friendship and learning to accept others with all their flaws and abilities. It is also a good lesson in meeting people where they are at, not where one hopes them to be. it is also a story of warning that things are not always what we think they are and also challenges us to be willing to learn from others. The book is fast paced and is hard to put down as we follow Buddy looking for answers to why he woke up in the landfill (why he was thrown away), and what his purpose in this world truly is.

Classroom connections: There are no bad words (so far), however, there is horrific violence. The characters must endure the threat of food and shelter insecurities throughout. This book would be great for those advanced middle school readers who vacillate between reading horror and fantasy. I would also recommend it for high school readers who love fantasy but are looking for something different.. This book is not for the early chapter reader (grades 1-5).

* I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review *

I’m not sure what to make of this book, but there are several significant issues that made me rate it lower than I wanted to. I was surprised at how much these issues interfered with how much I was able to enjoy it. I’m especially disappointed because I’ve enjoyed this author’s adult horror collaborations with del Toro, and the fact that they’re a Bram Stoker level horror author. So here’s what interfered with a higher rating, for me.

As ever, your mileage may vary.

First issue — it’s unclear what age group this book is intended for. It’s a “kids book” the same way Watership Down, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH or Lord of the Flies is a kids book — and by that I mean, even though it’s teddies, there’s some pretty graphic violence and teddy death, Because I wasn’t sure if it was intended for under 10, tween/teen, or older — the violence (that as an adult reader I was ok with, but could see a 9 year old being pretty upset by) kept pulling me out of the story.

Second issue — I think this would have read much smoother as a script or a graphic novel. In fact, that’s what I thought it was when I requested the ARC. The text of the novel falls into a lot of Tom Swift-ish turns of phrase, what with people grinning wryly, chuckling deviously, exclaiming loudly, proclaiming boldly, interjecting sardonically, querying gently, etc. Again: I realize that for an adult reader, this may be more of a problem than for an 11 year old reader. But it is very heavy on adverbs and thesaurus words for “said”. Part of the reason for this is the number of teddy characters, and the need to differentiate who’s speaking. In a script or graphic novel, this would be a much easier end to achieve.

Third issue — how girl characters are treated in terms of characterization and narrative arc. This story’s narrative is basically a variation on the standard Hero’s Quest, so we immediately know that as a reader, we’re supposed to align with Buddy, because he’s the “hero.” O.K., fair enough, though it’s the 21st century and we could mix it up, that’s not necessarily my issue. My issue is that the primary girl teddy, Sunny, who’s supposed to be Buddy’s complement, is presented as a thoroughly unlikeable character. This is further complicated by the fact that she is ALSO presented as smart and capable. Do you see the issue yet? As an adult female reader, I am able to reconcile the fact that a female character can be competent and smart WITHOUT also being mean, but an 11 year old girl might infer from this story that you can only be one or the other — that to be nice, you have to dial down your intelligence, or that to have your capability taken seriously, you have to be a b**ch. And make no mistake: she IS. I started marking the pages where Sunny’s action verbs had a negative connotation, just to compare against the other teddies. Sunny does not go a SINGLE PAGE for most of the book without growling, hissing, snapping, shouting, snarling, barking, or yelling. She is condescending to the other teddies and calls them “numbskulls” on multiple occasions. I think she’s *supposed* to read like Princess Leia, but she is much, much, MUCH less charming. Really, she was the most pleasant part of reading the book, and as a female reader, she’s who I’m supposed to align with. Sugar, the other main girl teddy, is “damaged merchandise” and thus her character reads a little bit like Delirium from Sandman, except not as pleasant to read. The author has chosen to make her main characterization center on the fact that she rhymes words that aren’t generally rhymed ( “cozy-woozy,” “teddy-weddings”, “flushy-wushy” etc.) Again, I recognize as an adult reader this is probably more irritating to me than it might be for a younger reader... but this is really the only character trait that Sugar gets. The other 2 female teddies we meet — Pookie and Mad, are similarly dislikeable, even as they move the plot along. The boy teddies, however, get to be wise, selfless, empathetic, and the leader of the quest. The girl characters are irritating, grating, expendable, or evil. The worst part is that I don’t think any of it was intentional. I think that’s just how internalized casual misogyny is. Anyway, as an adult female reader that bothered me a lot and made me decide that I had not desire to send that message to the young female readers in my life. There are LITERALLY HUNDREDS of Hero’s Quest stories she’ll have to read in the course of her education that will do that.

Now in to the good — because it’s really a shame that for me, the good parts of this novel were so deeply overshadowed by the parts I liked less. There’s some great kids-level ethics treated really well — most notably the line, “Once you see a group as individuals, it becomes harder to hurt them.” I wasn’t sure if The Mother/Proto characters were an overt religious analogy, or if the Creator/Creation dynamic is so recognizable for most religions of the book that most readers will be able to relate to it. Most of the Mother/Proto stories within the larger narrative read like religious parables, which,mad we know from the Narnia books, is not necessarily a terrible thing, but there were definitely a few moments where I was struck with the thought, “Is this a sneaky Jesus book?” — I never could decide, but I did like the way that the ethics and moral themes in the story were presented in a way that I felt a 10 year old reader could relate to and understand.

There’s also some low-key social commentary on subjects ranging from environmental issues (a lot of the story has to do with trash) and capitalism (Yellow Plastic Hills, the TM of Furrington Teddies, how The Voice calls Buddy by his patent number, etc.) These ideas are presented to a younger reader much like Murikami movies present complex, adult issues to kids in a way they understand. These parts of the book, I really enjoyed and I’d wished there had been more of that.

In short: I wish I liked this book more than I did. If it were adapted into a movie or Netflix series, I would watch it. If it were adapted to a graphic novel along the lines of We3, I would read it. I’m not sure if I could pick up another novel and face the onslaught of adverbs, awkward rhymes, and well, SUNNY, but that’s another story.

There’s a lot of potential here, and the good parts are really good. They’re just not (for me, anyway) good enough to balance out the parts that I didn’t like.

I was dismayed at the fact that this book is being marketed for children. Much of the violence was unnecessary and teaches that violence can be an answer to a problem (Mad.)

The ending was very unsatisfying. I can see this causing a child deciding that it isn't worth the time to read a long book because it will disappoint you. I saw on Amazon that this is book 1 of 1, meaning that there isn't even a planned sequel to redeem the bad ending.

I would only recommend this book to other writers as an example of how NOT to end a book - whether the book is being written for children or adults.

I'll be honest the comps and the following teddy bears got the better of me and I am so glad. This is one of the more violent middle grade books that I've read in awhile especially since it follows teddy bears. But with comps such as Toy Story and Lord of the Flies, it could only go so many ways. Additionally, there is artwork spread throughout at just the right moments. Seriously, if you're at all curious about this one, I say pick it up.

Buddy wakes up in the middle of a garbage dump. How did he get there?

Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published now and you can grab a copy.

I still have my teddy bear from childhood. He is a small panda missing one eye and quite a bit of hair. But he's still my friend. So how could I not read this book?

Buddy finds other teddies and helps them out of their boxes. They all have individual personalities. They decide they need to get out of the dump and look for home. Without intending it, Buddy is being called Boss and they expect him to lead them.

This is an exciting tale. The dozers are working the trash and they have to move fast to avoid being scooped up. It's a long way to the city where they hope to find children that will want them. More teddies join them. Not all the teddies make it. And when they find a toy store and try to put themselves on the shelf, the store manager wants to cut them to pieces!

There's more excitement and when you reach the end you see there is another book coming. This is a series and I'll be watching for the next book! After all, we still don't know why they threw them away...

They Threw us away is a book of endless suffering.
Buddy is a teddy bear who together with his three friends finds themselves trapped in a garbage dump. Together they will find adventures in order to find a child who will hug them and make them enter the forever sleep.
This was very sad to read is a mix of the movie Toy Story with Wes Anderson Isle of dogs.
Since it's the first book in a series, the ending left me wanting to know what was going to happen to Buddy and his friends. It's a sad story but it leaves you wondering that maybe Buddy and his friends will find the happiness and sleep they want so much.
In spite of that, I will wait to see what will happen in the next one.
3.5 stars
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for this ARC.

This one was a miss for me. I think it's too dark for the age group. I loved the premise. It just didn't pan out to have the kind of story that kids I know will love.

I thoroughly enjoyed this dark adventure from Daniel Kraus. The teddies are endearing and multifaceted and easy to root for, and the perils they face are sometimes creepy, sometimes thrilling, and always harrowing. I like the lore that has been created surrounding their Creation as well. I am intetested to see where the next book in the series leads.

(4.5 out of 5 stars. My review will be posted on my blog on September 14th, at the link included with this review.)

I have lots of fond memories of reading middle-grade horror books as a kid. There’s just something so fun about those stories. These authors get to play around with scary ideas but can’t go too far with them. It’s like sitting around a campfire and hearing a scary story - it’s not necessarily scary, but it’s kind of creepy and it stays with you for a while after you’ve read it. The best children’s horror books are like that - "Coraline," "Goosebumps," "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," etc. It’s with this context that I approached "They Threw Us Away." I am a fan of Daniel Kraus’s work; he’s written some of my favorite books over the last few years and I was very excited to see what he’d do with a story aimed at a younger audience. In some ways, he did exactly what I expected him to do, delivering a story that mixes scarier elements with more adventure-filled ones. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the book and I think it’s gonna be a big hit with its target audience.

While I compared "They Threw Us Away" with books like "Coraline" and the "Goosebumps" series, I think it’s important to state outright that it’s not a horror novel - at least, not really. That’s not to say, though, that it’s not creepy. From page one, there’s a darkness that lingers at the edge of the story and that darkness never departs - instead, only getting more and more prevalent. The novel opens in a junkyard with Buddy, Sonny, Horace, Sugar, and Reginald each awakening inside of their respective boxes and learning they've been thrown away for some mysterious reason. And almost immediately, they are in danger. At first, from the vultures and other birds of prey in the junkyard and, later, from the dangers of the world and whoever is responsible for their predicament. The scares are not as overt as they are in Kraus' adult work but they're there. From the instant terror of teddies running for their lives from vultures, to the more existential horror the teddies face as they make their way through the world and figure out their situation, to some fairly startling visual descriptions, there's a lot for terror-seeking youth to take pleasure in.

But it's not all darkness and terror; the bulk of the novel reads as more of an adventure book in the vein of Toy Story. Most of the narrative is spent following the teddies as they try to survive and find their way to the children they hope will love them - thereby achieving a kind of peace known as the Forever Sleep. It's a pretty solid idea for a story and one that had me instantly hooked - especially with the intriguing character work Kraus delivers. The novel is primarily told from Buddy's point of view – except for three chapters that hint at Kraus' grander backstory for the teddy bears of his Teddies Saga. And, as a result, Buddy gets the bulk of the character development. His arc is nothing that hasn't been seen in tons of other novels, one in which he must learn how to be a better friend and leader, but that doesn't make it any less effective. Buddy is a great surrogate character for the audience; at the start of the story, he is nearly as lost as the audience is, meaning we got to learn what's going on alongside him. It's a tried-and-true formula for a reason and it's one that works well here.

This is true for everything about the novel, though. It all works very well. While Buddy is the most developed of the teddies, the other four are still well-defined. As is the world of the novel, which feels both mysterious and lived in. It's an enticing setting for a trilogy of novels and it feels like Kraus is just getting started with this world and the characters that live in it. That's not to say "They Threw Us Away" doesn't tell a whole story, though. Its main narrative certainly reaches a conclusion but that conclusion includes many unanswered questions and one heck of a cliffhanger that sets the sequel up to move even deeper into the mysteries of this world. Someone, or something, is behind all that's happened to the teddies and I have a feeling the identity of who, or what, that is will be an exciting one to learn.

At the end of the day, I loved "They Threw Us Away." It’s an exciting adventure that’s dripping with intrigue, mystery, and lovable characters. There’s a darkness at the edge of the story that will prove appealing for older viewers, but there’s something that will appeal to all ages about these teddy bears seeking the love they feel has been denied to them. It’s reminiscent of "Toy Story," "Goosebumps," and "Lord of the Flies," and it’s a really fun read. I don’t think it’s too dark or scary for younger readers; I read much scarier fare in middle school. But, I suppose, if you’re not careful, the cover art and some of Rovina Cai's (gorgeous) illustrations might lead you to think this is a book for very young kids. It’s not; it’s definitely a book aimed at the upper-elementary-to-middle-school crowd. But it’s a book that should please that crowd immensely. However, that’s not to say that older readers won’t find plenty to enjoy here. It’s a book for all ages and many of those older readers will find themselves returned to their childhoods as they think of their own teddy bears while reading of Buddy and his friends’ exploits. It’s a great novel and well worth a read.

I received an electronic ARC from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group through NetGalley.
Buddy the teddy bear longs to be chosen by a child and enter his forever sleep. He watches bears be chosen around him at the store. Then, the next thing he remembers is being in a landfill. He rescues four other bears from their boxes. Their adventures to find children take them from the landfill to the city. The teddies work together and fight much like kids do.
Book one ends on a bit of a sad note. Readers will look forward to the next one in the series.
NOTE: Some of the teddy bears do not make it and are destroyed in various manners. There is one violent situation where the bears rip apart another bear.