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Overview
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It was eighty years ago, on the publication of The House at Pooh Corner, when Christopher Robin said good-bye to Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Now they are all back in new adventures, for the first time approved by the Trustees of the Pooh Properties. This is a companion volume that truly captures the style of A. A. Milne-a worthy sequel to The House at Pooh Corner and Winnie-the-Pooh.
Listen to award-winning narrator Jim Dale reading the Exposition to Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. Also available from Penguin Audio.
Synopsis
It was eighty years ago, on the publication of The House at Pooh Corner, when Christopher Robin said good-bye to Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Now they are all back in new adventures, for the first time approved by the Trustees of the Pooh Properties. This is a companion volume that truly captures the style of A. A. Milne-a worthy sequel to The House at Pooh Corner and Winnie-the-Pooh.
The Barnes & Noble Review
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is an "authorized" sequel to The House at Pooh Corner, written under the imprimatur of A. A. Milne's estate. All the familiar characters reappear, little changed. Indeed, they are confined to previously established traits and habits -- Piglet's nose blushes, Pooh sits on someone inadvertently, and so on, much as before. But the surrogate author, David Benedictus, is wise not to develop these beloved figures. Instead, he introduces a new face, a bumptious otter called Lottie, who keeps the narrative rolling. Christopher Robin is a little older, and events are proportionately more grown up. He organizes a spelling bee, a cricket match, and a harvest festival. In terms of charm, these goings-on can't compete with a game of Pooh sticks. But what could?
The illustrations are attractive, if a bit pallid compared with E. H. Shepherd's drawings. Still, child fans should be pleased. It's the adults who risk disappointment. Older readers encountered Pooh as children. For them the stories are layered in sentiment: from their childhood, from their children's reading, and from the ghostly presence of the real Christopher Robin, for whom the first stories were written. Milne understood the special power of a lost childhood's artifacts. At the end of The House at Pooh Corner, Christopher Robin explains to an uncomprehending Pooh that every boy will one day forget his cherished bear, but their friendship is nonetheless real and precious. It's a poignant moment, touching on the unfathomable divide between childhood and the adult world -- a distance Milne's stories can almost bridge. Adults will sneer at a new addition to the Pooh canon. On their terms, they're right to. But that's no reason kids shouldn't enjoy Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. --Mark T. Martin
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Christopher Robin returns from boarding school (80 years later) in this authorized but largely forgettable third volume of stories about Pooh, Piglet and the denizens of Milne's famous forest. Missing is the charm of the first book, mediated by an adult narrator creating a tableau for his child's imaginative play with a coterie of stuffed friends. Like the first books, there are 10 stories, but they are aged up to reflect Christopher's new interests—the play here involves a spelling bee, cricket, the creation of a school, the use of a thesaurus, atlas, dictionary, etc. A new character, Lottie the Otter, joins Rabbit and Owl to make a trio of the sanctimonious. Even saintly Kanga—Kanga!—loses her patience with Roo. There are a few inspired moments, including Rabbit's ill-conceived plan to lure his Friends and Relations to participate in a census using carrots and shortbread. (Rabbit also gets the best line: “Happy may be all very well, Eeyore, but it doesn't butter any parsnips.”) Burgess's illustrations are serviceable and resemble the originals, but, again, topping Shepard's originals proves a tough act to follow. All ages. (Oct.)\Booklist
[A] warm jumble of happy memories. It's both surprising and comforting that tales of such soft tenderness are still relevant.Children's Literature -
A. A. Milne was a genius and his books are enduring classics; David Benedictus is not a genius and this book is not an enduring classic. It is hardly a criticism of Benedictus to point this out. This collection of new stories about Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh, and the other denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood manages to imitate some of the features of Milne's prose style and incorporate some of the features of the original texts: Pooh loves honey and composes hums, Eeyore is gloomy, Tigger is bouncy, and a new inhabitant shows up (Lottie the otter). Christopher Robin arrives home from school (on a bicycle!) for a poignant reunion and then heads back to school for a poignant departure. The various episodes are pleasant (especially the creation of a school in the forest with Eeyore as headmaster), but there is not one to rival Pooh stuck in Rabbit's door, Piglet's bath at Kanga's house, the search for the Heffalump, or Poohsticks—nor even to be mentioned in the same breath. Burgess's illustrations do somewhat better at recreating the spirit of Ernest Shepard—the book is an attractive and appealing volume, lovely to hold. The real question that needs to be asked is: why create such a book at all? Burgess gives a reasonable answer: because we want to believe that somewhere "a little boy and his Bear will always be playing." Those who feel that this is answer enough may be grateful for these stories. Others will not. Reviewer: Claudia Mills, Ph.D.School Library Journal
Gr 1–4—Eighty years after the publication of the original "Winnie the Pooh" stories, this authorized sequel returns readers to the familiar characters and locales. Christopher Robin, on holiday from school, rejoins Pooh, timid Piglet, bouncy Tigger, patient Kanga, and his other friends for a summer full of adventure. In 10 stories, the friends put on a spelling bee, conduct a census, search for disappearing bees, start a school, and host a harvest festival. During a drought, they also meet a new resident of the forest, Lottie, an otter who is both forgetful and obsessed with etiquette. Another chapter, which describes a cricket match, may be more challenging for American readers. Fans of Pooh will recognize many elements: Pooh's hums, the animals' creative spelling, Piglet's fear of Heffalumps, and the maps on the endpapers. What's different is Christopher Robin; a year older, he seems less innocent, more in the role of an older sibling than a playmate. In addition, most members of the large cast of characters appear in each chapter, which feels a bit overwhelming. The writing is warm and humorous, though it doesn't quite match the charm and whimsy of the originals. Burgess's watercolor illustrations, on the other hand, are quite reminiscent of Shepard's. Pooh purists may find fault, but the book will likely be popular with many young readers and their parents.—Jackie Partch, Multnomah County Library, Portland, ORThe Barnes & Noble Review
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is an "authorized" sequel to The House at Pooh Corner, written under the imprimatur of A. A. Milne's estate. All the familiar characters reappear, little changed. Indeed, they are confined to previously established traits and habits -- Piglet's nose blushes, Pooh sits on someone inadvertently, and so on, much as before. But the surrogate author, David Benedictus, is wise not to develop these beloved figures. Instead, he introduces a new face, a bumptious otter called Lottie, who keeps the narrative rolling. Christopher Robin is a little older, and events are proportionately more grown up. He organizes a spelling bee, a cricket match, and a harvest festival. In terms of charm, these goings-on can't compete with a game of Pooh sticks. But what could?The illustrations are attractive, if a bit pallid compared with E. H. Shepherd's drawings. Still, child fans should be pleased. It's the adults who risk disappointment. Older readers encountered Pooh as children. For them the stories are layered in sentiment: from their childhood, from their children's reading, and from the ghostly presence of the real Christopher Robin, for whom the first stories were written. Milne understood the special power of a lost childhood's artifacts. At the end of The House at Pooh Corner, Christopher Robin explains to an uncomprehending Pooh that every boy will one day forget his cherished bear, but their friendship is nonetheless real and precious. It's a poignant moment, touching on the unfathomable divide between childhood and the adult world -- a distance Milne's stories can almost bridge. Adults will sneer at a new addition to the Pooh canon. On their terms, they're right to. But that's no reason kids shouldn't enjoy Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. --Mark T. Martin