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!
Haiku
Pooh Bear and Piglet
and Tigger, Rabbit, and Roo:
My son asks for more.
Limerick
Christopher Robin’s best friend is Pooh Bear.
Pooh lives in the forest, and plays Poohsticks there.
Pooh and Piglet save the day,
and CR goes away.
From now on, “nothing” days will be rare.
Free verse
Listening to stories,
he finds his Bear is real:
eating honey,
climbing trees,
and building a house of sticks.The Bear’s friends
come alive
in a make-believe forest
and the rain
batters their homes.The Bear
saves the day
and Hums to celebrate.
The piglet saves the day
and Bear continues humming.
Everyone has their turn
to be a Hero.Yes, his bear was real,
until he said
Good-bye
and went to learn
of Brazil and knights.
Real knights, with
more than Very Little Brain.
This is great! When our son was home from school this summer, we were reminiscing about Pooh and how much we love those books even now.
I don’t think I’ve read any of the A.A. Milne books, but it sounds like this was such a rewarding experience and a great thing to share with your son. It’s always wonderful when you can find something that touches you while also being magical for a new generation of readers!
And I love the format of your review… poetry just might be your thing! Really lovely.
A million times better than my pathetic poetic attempt! 🙂 I loved this. You did great.
One day I should read the Pooh books. I think my mom read them to me when I was really little – like little enough that I don’t remember – but for some reason we never ended up reading these to our boys.
Kathy, I think they are so fun! But I’m still a kid at heard.
Steph, I’m glad you liked the poetry…lol.
Amanda, aw, you’re too hard on yourself. If I remember, you choose a really hard book. I thought I’d stay with children’s lit!
I loved Pooh, and I think it’s too bad so many kids see the movie and never know that it was originally a book (which I love probably more than the movie, just because there are more stories!).
How fun this must have been for you. Both the enjoyment of Pooh with your son, and writing the poems in tribute :-).
Brava! Bravo! That is a really great idea for a book review. I loved your poetry – especially the Haiku of course.
Valerie, yes it was fun!
Haiku Amy, I think the Haiku was my favorite too!
This was delightful, my favorite so far. You couldn’t have picked a better book. my poetic review is here thanks for stopping by.
kaye, thanks for the visit! I’m glad you liked it.
I loved your poems but even more I loved how you are instilling in your son a love for these books at such a young age! That is fantastic! And I do think these are books that are well-suited to a poetic challenge. Well done!
Jenners, My son loves Pooh!!
My favorite to read aloud is Now We Are Six.