Mary Packard

Ooh, a slight subversion of the usual Pooh trope wherein Pooh awakens with a vague notion and wanders the Hundred Acre Wood to consult his friends -- but everywhere he knocks, no on is home! Left in isolation, Pooh quickly spirals into paranoid thoughts, suspecting a heffalump and woozle invasion. Fortunately for the kiddies, the story reverts to form and ends with a party.

"They say it's your birthday. Well, it's my birthday too, yeah."

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my show more 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

My love of Winnie the Pooh mostly comes from watching the Disney movie adaptations as a kid. I have no memory or record of reading the original Milne books until I was twenty-one, though I did collect a dozen or so issues of the comic book series in the late 1970s. I was inspired to seek out the original books only after the 1988 debut of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh animated show resparked my interest in the tubby little cubby during college. ("I gotta get up / I've gotta get goin' show more / I'm gonna see a friend of mine!")

I do enjoy regularly revisiting the Pooh movies, so as a sub-set of the Pooh Project my daughter and I are going to rewatch all the films and some of the shows and use that as a prompt to read some of the many adaptations that we have in our collection of Pooh books. We're starting off with first Disney animated short, 1966's "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree," which has been collected as the first third of the movie The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It's a delightful film that fills me with joy every time I see it.

The book in hand today is a serviceable little adaptation from 1994 by Mary Packard and Russell Hicks that was initially released as a Little Golden Book. It adapts the first half of the short film, as Pooh goes undercover as a little black raincloud in order to infiltrate bee hive security and filch some honey. The plan goes awry in a delightful way, though not quite as delightfully as it does in the film or in the first chapter of Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. But it'll do in a pinch.

(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

Although she practiced and practiced, Winnie Haggerty** just couldn't get her broom to fly, and with Halloween approaching, she feared she would be left behind on the big night. Her wise grandmother assured her that when she truly wanted to, she would find herself flying, and sure enough, when her cat companion, Goblin, got stuck in a tree, Winnie found she had what it took...

This cute little witchy adventure pairs a simple but engaging tale from author Mary Packard with colorful, show more cartoon-style artwork from illustrator Doug Cushman. It doesn't cover much new ground, when it comes to the genre - witchy picture-books are awash with young witches who are either reluctant or challenged, when it comes to their magical skills - but it is nevertheless quite sweet. It is a "glow in the dark" book, with pages that are meant to be held up to a light bulb, and then viewed in the dark. Unfortunately, as I read the book online, I was unable to experience that aspect of the book. Recommended to young witches, and to picture-book readers looking for fun Halloween stories.

**I'm not sure why it is, but Haggerty seems to be a common witch name, in stories I've encountered. It is also used in Elizabeth Lindsay's Heggerty Haggerty books, based upon the Yorkshire animated television show of the same name. The name is of Irish origin, and descends from the Gaelic Ó hÉigceartaigh. I'm not aware of any witchy connotations associated with it, so I suspect its popularity as a witch name is owing to the Anglicized version containing the word 'hag.' In any case, as a witchy picture-book aficionado, I found this intriguing. show less

A penguin writes Santa, wishing to fly, and Santa obliges. But of course, the penguin also learns the value of what he can do himself.

Bland and generic story in rhyme, but the art is cute.