Do you know the REAL Winnie the Pooh?  I didn’t meet him until a friend recommended I check out the original stories by A. A. Milne.  I am so glad I did!  Unlike the mass-marketed Disney character, the original Winnie the Pooh is a rich piece of adventure, character development and silliness.  Yes, silliness!  The original stories are soooo funny.  And, I mean funny for the adult too (or moreso, perhaps?). 

Winnie the Pooh is a 160 page book divided into 10 chapters.  Each chapter makes for a long bedtime story, or sometimes we read half and finish the tale later.  Disney’s stories are just pieces of each chapter – they’ve cut out part of the storyline and majorly simplifed what’s left.  Now, it’s true, that when we switched to the original Winnie the Pooh last year my daughter (then just turned four) was not an immediate fan.  She was disappointed by the sporadic pictures and seemed to have trouble following the delightful, back-and-forth conversations of the characters.  So, was the original work to “old” for her?  I’ll say not.  My son, who’s only 2 1/2, absolutely loves our Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.  The original A. A. Milne version of Pooh is all he’s ever had.  And, now, Winnie the Pooh is my daughter’s favorite bedtime pick. 

As a parent, it’s nice to find a book that I can enjoy reading over and over and over.  If you’re a parent, you know how that goes.  But, even better, it’s exciting to be sharing with them a good story that challenges them to create mental pictures and playfully develops their ability to appreciate a longer tale.  Our volume combines the original Winnie the Pooh with The House at Pooh Corner, a collection of stories also written by A. A. Milne that continues the adventures of Pooh and his friends.  This Christmas, we hope to add Milne’s poetry anthologies “When We Were Very Young” and “Now We Are Six” to our home library.  What, you haven’t tried children’s poetry?  They’ll love it!  The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie the Pooh combines all four volumes, and would be a wonderful Christmas present for any 2-6 year old!

Related posts:

1. New Children’s Books for Spring
2. Leo Tolstoy’s Free School & the Skylark Sings
3. Children’s Books for Fall
4. Nature Play & Nature Study with Young Children
5. Children's Books for Summer

Tags: good books

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