Happy Winnie the Pooh Day 2015

So last year as part of the literary calendar I recognised Winnie the Pooh Day by reading the very first book in A.A. Milne’s series. I absolutely loved it and you can read all about that here.

This year in order to do the same thing I read the second book in the series House at Pooh Corner. This book introduces the much loved character of Tigger. That is much loved by everyone else. I sadly wasn’t too much of a fan.

One of the things that I absolutely loved about this second instalment is that it took me through the year in a series of adorable mishaps. The first story begins on a snowy day which was perfect as I was reading it on a snowy day. We worked our way through the year until eventually finishing up with my favourite season: Autumn.

As I hinted at earlier the introduction of Tigger in the second chapter of the collection was not something that I thought added much to the story. His appearance was sudden and unexplained and I find it difficult to understand what it was that he was adding. He appeared very young and was mostly definitely a confidante for Roo so perhaps he was there to appeal to the younger readers.

My favourite of all the stories has to be one near the end of the book that deals with the mystery of Christopher Robin and Backson. In the Disney adaptation of the books this is turned in to quite the misadventure which I really liked, but I also liked the quiet simplicity of the story in the book.

I didn’t get chance to throw a Pooh Bear tea party this year, but honey cakes and bear biscuits are definitely something that I am looking forward to with my next reading of Pooh and friends next year.

Happy Winnie the Pooh Day!

Happy Winnie the Pooh Day 2014!

Today is the birthday of Winnie the Pooh author A.A Milne. This means that every year this day is celebrated as Winnie the Pooh Day and this year I decided to jump on the band wagon! A.A. Milne, who was born in 1882, based his stories about Pooh on his son's stuffed animals and even incorporated Christopher Robin into the stories by making him a key character. I was very surprised to learn that Milne studied Maths at Cambridge. I suppose this just goes to show that mathematicians do have imagination! 

Winnie the Pooh was first published on 14th October 1926 so is definitely a children's classic. Last week I read and completed Milne's first Pooh book Winnie the Pooh and next I will be starting House at Pooh Corner. This is a series that I never picked up when I was younger and one that I regret not having read until now because they really do deserve to be as popular as they are.

One of the things that I noticed when reading the book is that it makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is a father making up stories about his son's toys. I liked that it was that honest. I liked that the narrator could be heard when you were reading. I also liked that every so often Christopher Robin would interject and ask questions of the story which made it so much more interactive. This form also helped to make the stories feel intimate and personal. Even though I was often reading them on a busy train, I felt as though I was sitting in front of a warm fire with tea and biscuits. 

I was very shocked to realise that Tigger is not in the first book! When I was growing up it was always Pooh and Tigger and I never really looked too much at characters like Owl and Rabbit. I also don't think that I appreciated how reasonable Eeyore's gloominess is. In all of the stories from the first book I see Eeyore as having genuine reasons for being sad and the poor thing seems to be a victim of some genuine misfortune. In chapter four Eeyore loses his tail which is a part of him! At the beginning of chapter six he is sad because no one has remembered his birthday and in chapter eight his offer of help is completely ignored. I found myself feeling very sorry for Eeyore a lot of the time and I know that he probably doesn't get any happier, but I really whish he would! Maybe in the final book everyone's favourite donkey can have a happy ending. 

I borrowed my copy of this book from the library and I have to to say that it is incredibly beautiful. All of the pictures that are in this post are photographs that I took of the illustrations which were drawn by Ernest H. Shepard. They are simple and evocative and childlike in the best sense of that word. The book had a heart-warming quality that meant even though the stories were simple they brought a smile to your face and the illustrations were a perfect compliment to that. I look forward to the next installment of Pooh and will buying my nieces and nephews a copy of these as soon as they are able to read!

Rating: ★★★★