Naples, Florida: Beloved Owen County civic leader Isabel Crane Goldberg’s much awaited book is now reality – and it’s bringing more than a few smiles – and an occasional tear to its readers. A Bear Called CHARLIE: A Memoir, has already hit the ground running since its release one week ago.

One reviewer, syndicated columnist Alan Bisbort, writes: “Charlie is a wonderful book, reminiscent of an updated version of A.A. Milne’s stories, with overtones of pathos and humor right out of ‘Harvey,’ the movie wherein Jimmy Stewart converses with a 10-foot invisible rabbit. Beautifully crafted, it’s a story that can be read to youngsters, and enjoyed by adults old enough to remember a time when America seemed like a beautiful dream.”

Published by new niche publishing company GOLD MOUNTAIN PRESS, the book tells the story of Charlie, an abandoned World War II era teddy bear, most likely destined for the trash heap, until he was rescued at an auction by the author several years ago. No sooner had she purchased him and started for home on a cold and snowy evening, than his new Mom (Isabel) was astonished to learn she had purchased a bear who “came with a voice and everything.”

After all, everyone knows cats and dogs communicate. So why should anyone be surprised to learn teddy bears speak too? Certainly the millions of bear collectors around the world all know that to be a fact.

And so the story begins.

“I don’t remember a time when Charlie wasn’t part of our family,” commented Peg Goldberg Longstreth, the book’s co-author and illustrator. Longstreth, who is Isabel’s older daughter, owns Southwest Florida’s largest contemporary art gallery and is an award winning free-lance music and arts critic as well. Her first non-fiction book, ICONS FROM HELL, is scheduled for release shortly.

“Looking back, however, I realize it really hasn’t been that many years. It’s just that, from the moment Charlie moved in, life changed in the Goldberg household. Not only were there our much beloved rescued cats and dogs, it’s as if my sister (Madi Arnett) and I gained a very special new sibling. My niece (Diana Markland) and her husband Jim, spent hours creating a wonderful Charlie Bear Tea Shoppe as a Christmas present one year. Scores more bears joined our family. Charlie’s true love Merrybell was rescued and moved in too,” Longstreth explained, smiling.

“Almost every day when we spoke, invariably Mom or I would end up talking about Charlie, and the pages and pages she was writing as her ideas began to take shape for a book. I put my own manuscripts aside and began helping her in earnest the last Christmas before she died. I could see the potential ‘star power’ Charlie had, and desperately wanted to help Mom bring her dream to fruition.”

“The hundreds and hundreds of hours spent have been a true labor of love.”

Longstreth is thrilled with the positive reviews already being generated. Several other syndicated columnists and reviewers have expressed an interest in reviewing Charlie as soon as the book is available through Amazon.com, which is anticipated to be by early February.

The book is being sold in a number of stores in Florida, and Longstreth (and Charlie) are reading and signing books at several locations, including Starbucks and independent bookstores.

“The entire nature of the publishing business has changed in the last few years,” she explained. “Other than a handful of big name authors, once a book is published, most people have no realization whatsoever that its commercial success hangs on the author’s ability to market books. So that’s exactly what Charlie and I are doing.”

In Spencer, Charlie will be available beginning this week at the McKay Family Pharmacy, at Babbs Supervalu, and will also be at the Owen County Heritage and Cultural Center. Book signings and readings are planned in the next few months.

A percentage of every book sold at Babbs and McKay’s will be donated in Isabel and her husband’s honor to the Owen County Humane Society for animal rescue and spay-neuter services.

“GOLD MOUNTAIN PRESS has developed a wonderful web site to promote and sell this and other books it publishes and, in the case of Charlie, we will have ongoing family photos and an interactive blog as well. That web address is www.goldmountainpress.com,” commented Longstreth. “We are enormously proud of our mother, and I am committed to doing everything in my power to share this magical memoir with the world.”