Winnie-the-Pooh Archives – Rebecca Reads

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus

April 10, 2014 by Rebecca Reid

It is always rather dangerous when the Estate of a Favorite Author decides to approve a retelling, remake, or sequel to a Favorite Series.

So I was a bit apprehensive to read Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus (Dutton Children’s Books, 2009). With the Disney movie versions of Pooh, Tigger, and friends, I had reason to be wary. (Many of the modern story lines are simply horrible!)

I needn’t have worried. Author David Benedictus and illustrator Mark Burgess treated the Winnie-the-Pooh legacy much as Mr. Milne and Mr. Shepherd would have done: it featured a rather clever rhyming (although stuffed) bear, a timid and frequently blushing Piglet, a self-centered Eeyore, and all the other characters much as I fell in love with them in Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. The Christopher Robin who joins the friends during summer break is, likewise, English through-and-through, teaching his friends cricket, wearing his blue suspenders, and otherwise bringing imagination, silly confusion, and adventure back to the Hundred Acre Wood.Continue Reading

Kids Corner: Winnie-the-Pooh Books Inspired by Milne and Shepard

September 24, 2009 by Rebecca Reid

Whenever I see a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh in a store, on a shelf, anywhere, really, I pick it up and hold it. I flip the pages. I pause over the pictures (whether they are in color or not). I wish I could own it.

But why? I already own a lovely hardcover in color (along with Pooh Corner) and a volume of The Complete Tales and Poems of Pooh. If I want to read it, I can just go home and read it!

Yet, there is something about this Bear of Very Little Brain that makes me want to own him.

My recent poetic attempt may illustrate how much I enjoyed my recent reread of these classics. So I searched out other Pooh books from the library this month.Continue Reading

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (Revisited in Poetry)

August 22, 2009 by Rebecca Reid

I wrote a “review” of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne in my pre-book blogging days (reposted on Rebecca Reads here) when I first read A.A. Milne to my son at age 4 months. I reread both books to him again over the last two months, now that he’s almost 2 years old.

I should say that my son loved it. As in: he specifically requested most days that I read to him about Pooh and pointed to the book on the shelf. As in: he would come running over to my side to see the pictures and yell “Pooh!” when he found his bear on the page. As in: when I turned the last page of Pooh Corner and closed the book, he looked up and said “More?! Pooh?!”

Since I already have reviewed it, I thought I’d do something different this time. Chance #9 for the Take a Chance Challenge is to review something in poetry. It seems appropriate to write a “review” of Milne in poetry because Pooh likes to put a rhyme (a hum) to everything.

Please forgive my non-poetic offering. I know I’m just building stereotypes of poetry as bad, but hey, I can pretend I’m a poet, right?

It ended up pretty short for the time I spent putting this together. I could write more, but I think I’ve spent long enough already!Continue Reading

Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

April 25, 2008 by Rebecca Reid

I’ve been reading The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne to my infant son. I can’t determine what he thinks of them — I read while he kicks and rolls around the floor — but I truly enjoy reading them.

The Complete Tales includes the story books, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner, and two books of poetry, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. I don’t love the poems — I feel like A.A. Milne’s poetry is a bit forced. I admit, though, that there are some classic and clever poems, and the more of Milne’s poetry I read, the more I like it. Favorite poems: “Teddy Bear” in When We Were Very Young and “Sneezles” and “The End” in Now We Are Six. (I still prefer the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson.)

However, I love the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh.

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