I haven't picked up this book of short stories in a while and was delighted to be reminded that it is one of my favorite non-Milne Pooh books. Kathleen W. Zoehfeld and the artists of Studio Orlando skillfully meld the Pooh friends with traditional nursery tales using a variety of clever methods (dreams, play-acting, reading a book, etc.). Wonderful to read aloud, and the pictures tell the stories well enough that a young child can just flip through on their own and enjoy.

Eeyore Notices That the Sky Is Falling (Based on "Chicken Little") - 5 stars
Eeyore is the perfect Chicken Little, spouting his litany of doom. Gopher gets a heroic little part. And there is even a funny twist ending that tacks an additional lesson on this old tale. And if you try to imitate all the voices as I do during read-alouds, this is a terrific challenge as you have to switch rapidly line by line going through a longer string of characters each time they explain how they know the sky is falling.

A very small someone chases the Heffalump from Rabbit's garden (Based on "The Ram in the Chili Patch") - 3 stars
I'm not very familiar with the original story on which this is based, but it's fun watching the Pooh friends take turns trying unsuccessfully to drive a heffalump out of Rabbit's carrot patch. Unfortunately, it's all part of a dream Rabbit is having, turns on a new character named Bug who is . . . um . . . a bug (why not use Small or Alexander Beetle?), and ends abruptly in the dream instead of having Rabbit wake up. Still, it's fun watching the heffalump blow them all away with his trunk.

Pooh breaks his honeypot and Christopher Robin helps him fix it (Based on "The Rooster and the Mouse") - 5 stars
Pooh needs paste from Christopher Robin to fix his honeypot, but Christopher Robin asks for carrots in turn. Rabbit has carrots, but needs bread, which Kanga has, but she needs wood, and so on, etc. etc. It's hilarious watching Pooh get all the exchanges jumbled in his head and Piglet shining as the one who helps him keep it all straight. Delightful.

Rabbit decides to make a cake (Based on "The Little Red Hen") - 4 stars
Rabbit shines in the role of the Little Red Hen, doing all the work necessary to make a cake while the Pooh friends relax and play. A friendlier ending from the original story works well in the Hundred-Acre Wood.

Pooh gets into some trouble with Heffalumps (Based on "Goldilocks and the Three Bears") - 3 stars
Pooh stars in a fairly straight-up retelling of Goldilocks with all the familiar lines in a story-within-the-story that Christopher Robin is reading him to teach him a lesson about some naughtiness revealed in the final pages.

Piglet brings home a haycorn (Based on "The Teeny-Tiny Woman") - 3 stars
A teeny-tiny Piglet finds a teen-tiny acorn on a teeny-tiny walk in the Hundred-Acre Wood, only to be tormented by a teeny-tiny voice outside his teeny-tiny window demanding its return in this teeny-tiny horror story that seems a teen-tiny bit out of place.

Pooh sets out to borrow a pot of honey from Rabbit (Based on "Hansel and Gretel") - 2 stars
Ugh. The first misstep in the book has a hungry Pooh falling asleep and having a nightmare about being trapped in a house of honey with a woozle who wants to eat him. It's no fun and barely resembles the source material.

Rabbit loses his pancake, and Pooh finds it (Based on "The Gingerbread Man") - 3 stars
When Rabbit drops his pancake and it rolls away, rather than search for it, he falls into an anxiety spiral imagining his sassy pancake rolling through the Hundred-Acre Wood, evading all the Pooh friends who want to eat it. As Rabbit frets, a certain bear follows his nose to a treat and a happy ending that definitely violates the 5-second rule.

Piglet brings a basket of honey to Rabbit (Based on "Little Red Riding Hood") - 4 stars
Christopher Robin and the Hundred-Acre friends act out Little Red Riding Hood as they play make-believe. Pooh is hilarious as a wicked Woozle -- a Poohzel! -- who plots to steal the basket of honey Piglet is taking through the Wood to Rabbit.

Piglet, Pooh, and Christopher Robin decide to cross the bridge (Based on "Three Billy Goats Gruff") - 3 stars
The haycorns are thicker and the honey is sweeter on the other side of the bridge, but Pooh and Piglet cannot cross because of the "troll-y" birds. But Christopher Robin has a plan to out-bully the bullying crows with a threat of violence, which doesn't seem a friendly or Pooh-ish sort of solution.

Nursery rhymes with Winnie the Pooh - 2 stars
Nonsensical nursery rhyme gibberish is jumbled or replaced with nonsensical Pooh references.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) ( )

I thought this was a book of tradition nursery rhymes with Pooh illustrations, but it actually is nursery rhymes made about Pooh & his friends to the tune of the traditional rhymes. Since not it is not stated what tune they are made from, on many it is difficult to tell how they are to be sung. ( )

I thought this was a book of tradition nursery rhymes with Pooh illustrations, but it actually is nursery rhymes made about Pooh & his friends to the tune of the traditional rhymes. Since not it is not stated what tune they are made from, on many it is difficult to tell how they are to be sung. ( )