Winnie The Pooh

Disney Exclusive 12 Inch Plush Toy Winnie the Pooh
$15.00
This toy went to Sri Lanka to a 12 year old girl whom I met while over there. She included a small clipping of a winnie pooh toy in a letter she sent me requesting one for her birthday. I was happpy to find the perfect match for her. I have since received a picture of her with the bear and a note from her grandmother telling me how much joy the toy has brought her granddaughter. This was a fun thing to do.

Fisher Price Splash N Bubble Treehouse
$9.99
I work with preschoolers and they LOVE this tub toy.Especially the bubble honeybee hive!.Its a great tool for talking and fun!

Classic Pooh��� Plush
$14.99
Uhhhh yeah, am I the only one that picked this up at Target a few months ago for only 17 bucks? I dont see how Pooh is $40-$50 everywhere else...i guess I was lucky! He's BEAUTIFUL though, soft and cuddly! I'm glad I got him at a bargain!

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie-The-Pooh Collection)
$19.99
Of course everyone is looking rather sternly down their noses at this brash attempt to replicate the beloved A.A. Milne's stories and E.H. Shepard's illustrations, but it really is not bad at all. The stories are sweet and simple and ramble a bit as they should. The illustrations are adorable with the characters for the most part looking just like they did (esp Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit). The drawings are paler and simpler, with less of Shepard's dark strokes, than those in my very colorful Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie the Pooh. They are charming and most definitely follow the brush of Shepard. Roo is a funny little thing, always seems to be the same shape, Pooh a bit rounder.

The biggest shock is that Christopher Robin is much older (and I didn't particularly care for his illustration). So of course he speaks more maturely and attempts to teach his friends some things he's learned at school, for better or worse. Eeyore actually seems less gloomy now. Lottie the Otter reminds me of Kanga, bossy in that motherly way, even more worldly (re sardines, "Are they Portuguese?"). Readers must not be snobbish and close their minds against new friends. Lottie is a lesser character and fits in all right here, following in the tradition of Milne introducing new characters.

Overall, I found the book an admirable sequel to the originals, both in story and drawing. One has to allow for time passing. A boy cannot help but grow and change, but to David Benedictus' credit he manages to keep to the heart of A.A. Milne. I do hope, however, that we don't find Christopher Robin returning as a teen.