Winnie-the-Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh is a beloved character, but I’m afraid most children these days only know the Disney-fied Pooh Bear.  If that’s the only Pooh your children know, please, please please! pick up A.A. Milne’s original books and read them with your children.

Milne first published the original books in 1928, and the fact they are still in print testifies to their place in children’s literature.  And it’s a place well-deserved.

I haven’t decided if Milne wrote the books for children or for adults.  I concede his original audience is children, since he wrote the books for his son.  But I think I enjoyed The House at Pooh Corner almost more than my children!

If you’ve watched many of the Disney Winnie-the-Pooh episodes, you’ll be familiar with the plots of many of the stories.  But the nuances you enjoy in reading a story are lost in watching the cartoon, so this book is definitely worth reading.  Milne’s run-on sentences, his free-thinking prose, delightful and lovable characters and their every-day adventures will capture your attention, as well as your children’s – a rarity in children’s books.

Find, and buy, the original set, complete with Ernest H. Shepard’s illustrations.  Then cuddle on the couch, the bed, the floor – anywhere – and enjoy these books all over again with your children.

(No board books, cartoons or movies allowed.)

Titles of the original books:

• Winnie-the-Pooh
• The House At Pooh Corner
• When We Were Very Young (poetry)
• Now We Are Six (poetry)