I enjoyed this walk down memory lane with Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. Each character brings a unique personality to the story. My favorite is still Piglet, I understand Pooh's penchant for honey, as I have similar feelings about dark chocolate.

As a side note, I concurrently listened to this on audio, with Michael Page narrating. At first I couldn't quite figure out why Mr Page chose a specific voice for Pooh, as I probably was being influenced by Disney's animated version. After I completed the book, I did some reading about its history. It turns out the illustrator, E. H. Shepard, based his illustrations of Pooh on his own son's teddy bear named Growler, instead of Christopher Robin's bear. Perhaps that accounts for the narrator's choice of a growling type of voice for Pooh.

This illustrated book and the audio is recommended both to adults and children. My adult self did not have as much patience with the simplicity of the characters as my younger self would have, but I still enjoyed the story.

Original year of publication: 1926 ( )

There are some really wonderful children's books out there, but this isn't one. Not much seems to happen, or maybe things happen but not in a fun way. Plus it keeps saying how dumb Pooh is, which feels mean. ( )

I didn't much care for the sound effects (forest noises and music between the chapters) but the stories retained their charm. It has been so long since I read these original stories that I had forgotten them -- what I remember is the Disney animation. ( )

#511 in our old book database. Not rated.

A year and a half into my Pooh Project, and I only now get around to re-reading the cornerstone book? I must say, it is refreshing after reading so many watered-down adaptations and adaptations of adaptations to get back to the source material.

You'd think my devotion to Pooh would stem from my childhood and happy memories of the Silly Old Bear. And, sure, I had collected some Pooh comic books and watched and enjoyed the Disney short films, but they didn't do much for me, and I never made it to Milne's books. Like Saul on the road to Damascus, I was a late convert to the cult, not actually reading this book until I was in college and had started watching The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on Saturday mornings on a lark and fell in love with the segment entitled "Donkey for a Day." Soon, I was gathering Pooh videos, books, and even the occasional doll. And when my daughter was born about a decade later, I used her as cover to go all in on Pooh, gathering hundreds of books and dolls.

And while the cartoon opened my eyes, this book is what cemented my faith in Pooh. From cover to cover it is pure delight, distilled happiness, bliss in readable form. I love the characters, their interactions, the situations into which they are put, and the wordplay that ties everything together.

Perfection.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) ( )

filing apart! wipe clean book