Barbara Gaines Winkelman

Pooh can't imagine why his friends seem to be avoiding him and doing things without him, though he does have a faint notion that today might be a special day of some sort. It seems to me he, based on some other books I've read over the last year, that Pooh forgets this special day almost every year, resulting in a delightful surprise for him but just another retread for me.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her show more 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

Pooh and his Hundred Acre friends star in a tale that is robbed of any joy or entertainment due to a heavy-handed, didactic script that reads more like a series of public service announcements than a story.

And I'm supposed to believe that Tigger can count to twenty? No way!

(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 show more 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

Pooh is jealous that everyone else has a favorite place so -- perhaps forgetting his Thoughtful Spot or the Honey Tree -- he sets out to find his own, only to get lost. When things are put aright again, he has one of the sappiest realizations I've had the misfortune to read aloud.

Barbara Gaines Winkelman gets her second strike and is shaping up to be one of my least favorite Pooh writers. And the usually reliable Robin Cuddy turns in some oddly drawn faces on Pooh this go round, with lots of show more unnecessary lines around the snout.

(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

I dislike when the story in a children's book is based on factually incorrect information. In this tale, for instance, Owl declares it is time for him to fly south for the winter . . . even though most types of owls rarely migrate with the seasons. It is not uncommon for Owl to give bad information in Pooh stories, but his lapses are usually pointed out by another character, and this time it's just left there uncorrected.

Rolling with the premise, the rest of the book is a ho-hum study in how show more various residents of the Hundred-Acre Wood cope with missing their absent friend . . . until his inability to navigate makes all the emotional turmoil moot.

Side note: This is another entry in Disney's My Very First Winnie the Pooh series that credits the story as an adaptation on the title page even though I cannot track down where the story may have first appeared. Frustrating.

UPDATE – JUNE 11, 2023

Yay, I finally found the source for this adaptation. It is very loosely based on the short story "Owl's Well That Ends Well" from Winnie the Pooh's Bedtime Stories, written by Bruce Talkington and illustrated by John Kurtz. It's such a loose adaptation, it actually incorporates pictures from other stories in the same book to add some very different aspects.

(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