Studio Mouse

A nice, compact boxed set of board books introduces feelings to little ones by way of Piglet and all the Pooh friends. The structure of the books may be a little too repetitive for adults to read all at once, but kids will probably like it. The set also includes an audio CD with a narrator who has a deep, warm voice reading all the books, but unless the books are piled up in order, children may have trouble keeping up with him unless they are comfortable pushing pause and play on their show more own.

Here are the books reviewed in order by their appearance on the CD:

Piglet and Friends: Happy ~2 stars~

Poor Piglet. He gets a series named after him, and he doesn't get to actually be in the first book except on the cover.

This little rhyming board book of ten pages and nine sentences tells us what makes Piglet's friends happy. It's not surprising that honey makes the list for one of them . . .

Piglet and Friends: Sad ~2 stars~

We learn what things make Piglet and his friends sad.

I'm appalled that they went with a rainy day for Pooh instead of an empty honey pot.

And Eeyore -- the saddest character in the Hundred-Acre Wood doesn't even get a page!?!? They actually passed up the chance to write, "What makes Eeyore sad? Everything." Boo!

Piglet and Friends: Scared ~2 stars~

I'm on the third day of going through a boxed set of board books about Piglet's feelings, and the only feeling I'm having is one of boredom.

Piglet and Friends: Proud ~3 stars~

Maybe it's my hubris allowing me to identify, but this book about what makes the Pooh friends proud actually works for me.

Unfortunately, it's the second book in this Piglet's Feelings boxed set that doesn't actually have Piglet in the story. He's on the cover only. I'm starting to have concerns about false advertising . . .

Piglet and Friends: Angry ~2 stars~

This joins that rare handful of books in our Pooh collection that does not actually have an appearance by Winnie the Pooh! He's not on the cover nor anywhere inside -- not even a cameo. And it's a shame because an angry Pooh bear is adorable:


https://imgur.com/x0eaIsn

Despite being named after Piglet, for the third time in this series Piglet only appears on the front and back covers, nowhere inside. But at least he looks angry on the cover. Except for Roo, none of the other characters inside the book even look particularly angry.

At least Gopher gets to make his first appearance in the series.

Piglet and Friends: Confused ~3 stars~

Confusion looks very believable on the faces of a Bear with Very Little Brain and his friends. A cute finish to the series.

(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... ) show less

The Pooh friends meet various animals and learn the sounds they make.

It's a little weird that the fact that the Pooh friends are animals themselves is not directly addressed. The anonymous writer even goes so far as to include a pig as one of the animals while Piglet is notably absent from the book.

Regardless, I'm awarding a bonus star for sneaking in Thomas O'Malley of The Aristocats as the exemplar for cats. Crossover!

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a show more 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... ) show less

We learn what things make Piglet and his friends sad.

I'm appalled that they went with a rainy day for Pooh instead of an empty honey pot.

And Eeyore -- the saddest character in the Hundred-Acre Wood doesn't even get a page!?!? They actually passed up the chance to write, "What makes Eeyore sad? Everything." Boo!

(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 show more 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... ) show less

This book is as one-note as the other books in the series -- Pooh and his friends march around to a jaunty little rhyme -- but at least it has the decency to finally show the friends worn out from all the exercise they've been doing.

(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 show more 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... ) show less