The House at Pooh Corner

Having completed the first book in the nighttime read-aloud, we of course had to complete the story, and little did I know what an emotional journey it would be. Milne continues his beautiful writing with his important moments and capitalizations of not-so-proper nouns. Milne has a way of describing fanciful, childlike ideas that are more grandeur than the adults reading it would expect, and speaks up to the small child who has the more correct belief that this world is a world of continuous miracles we get to enjoy. One of my favorite stories of Pooh is in this collection and it opens with the lines, "By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not show more run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, ‘““There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.’ But all the little streams higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late." - Just beautiful.

What I was not expecting was an ending that I did not want to be tired and not ready for. A slight spoiler but something of important to the writing style of Milne that shows why we continue to read Winnie the Pooh after 100 years. The final story is similar in fashion to what the ending of Toy Story 3 is and almost out of the blue. Christopher Robin has imbued the animals of the Hundred Acre Woods with different emotions and outlooks and mostly siding with Pooh, not at the exclusion of the others but he more identifies with Pooh - or I should say Pooh reflects Christopher Robin's outlook on the world to maybe a lesser degree of understanding so that he may "help" that silly ol' bear. Reading the last chapter, I found myself tired and wanting to go to bed but also enjoying completing another book with my youngest - who spent most of her time upside down rather than settling down to drift off to dream-land. In it, Christopher Robin is spending his last time with his friend Pooh in the special place in the Hundred Acre Woods and Pooh isn't quite understanding that this is the last time but knows it's something a little odd but chalks it up to his limited thinking ability. Milne writes the goodbye in not anything that is a hard out but makes it clear moreso to the adult reader that the boy is growing up and won't need his stuffed friends anymore. And the scene is calm and drifts off with a boy and his bear looking up at the sky.

Sobbing. Tired, unexpected emotions of a children's book. I was a brave soldier, attempting to not crack too much and trying to make my voice sound more tired than weeping as my daughter happily performed half headstands and somersaults. She did ask once why my voice was so shaky and I'm not sure she heard me talk about the saddness of this goodbye scene as she wanted to talk about the next book we'd read. I walked out of that room, no longer as tired as I was and enjoyed that this children's book had the two different impacts on me and my daughter and that she would, Lord willing, experience in a different way when, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, "But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."

Lots of good stories here, and one heck of an ending. Final Grade - A show less

Awww. Re read for the umpty millionth time (I may have lost count). This is special.
As a child one of my favourite TV programmes was Jackanory, an inspired, if deceptively simple idea, where famous names read a children's book and over the course of a week or two, the book was finished. I can clearly remember listening to Bernard Cribbins read this. He does all the voices. Listening again as an adult, this is just so lovely, but you also appreciate the skill in the reader. It is read quite slowly, and the voices are quite distinct. Kanga & Roo both have a distinctly ozzie twang, Tigger sounds a bit like a slightly dense colonel returned from India, rabbit is always in a hurry and piglet squeaks. But my favourite has to be Eeyore, who show more sounds just like Alan Bennett - a rather dour northerner.
As to the tales themselves, there is nothing to say that hasn't been said already. You can find all of humanity in here and when Christopher Robin faces the prospect of leaving the forest to go to school I admit to getting blurry eyed all over again. Love it. Still. show less

Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, and all of their friends have adventures, get into scrapes, and sometimes just go for walks. There are 10 stories: Pooh and Piglet build a house for Eeyore (by taking apart and reassembling his existing house), they meet Tigger and he eats everyone’s food, everyone searches for Rabbit’s friend (a beetle) and gets lost in the woods, Tigger bounces into a tree and gets stuck, everyone learns that Christopher Robin has a life, Pooh invents a game where they race sticks in the creek, everyone tries to lose Tigger in the woods because he’s annoying (dark!), Owl’s treehouse falls down, Eeyore finds a new house for Owl (it’s just piglet’s house) and Christopher Robin leaves.

I never really clicked show more with Pooh and company as a kid, but it’s delightful to read from an adult perspective. Seeing the characters as pieces of Christopher Robin’s imagination, and the way that he uses twisted phrases and concepts he’s picked up from adults is fascinating. All of the characters are extremely cute, except (and I can’t believe how this has been erased from other Pooh media) Eeyore is an awful jerk! He calls the other animals “thing” and “it” even though everyone is very nice to him, and gives Pooh and Piglet a long lecture about how they’re not “Educated”. I thought Tigger was going to be my least favorite, but he’s way less obnoxious here than in the Disney-fied version. show less

Gentle and sweet and sprinkled with unexpected wisdom (or should I say, wisdom from unexpected sources). I grew up on the animated New Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, but back then I (of course) didn't see how the characters fit definite personality types; that was fun to track while reading Milne for the first time. Also the layers of wordplay and wit are delightful. All in all, I was going to give this a strong four stars until the last story, at which point I cried for Christopher Robin and Pooh and every child who knows it's time to start growing up yet doesn't want to or feel ready for it. As a kid, I felt that tearing too, that loss of putting away childish things. This is a beautiful book.

If Winnie-the-Pooh is about childhood, The House at Pooh Corner is about growing up, but told in a way such the reader need not realize it at the time. It gracefully marks a particular milestone to the Pooh tales that may bring a tear to any parent’s eye, but will still bring laughter and joy to the child.

For those who know Pooh mostly from his Disney exploits, it may be of interest to note that Pooh Corner marks the first appearance of Tigger. However, by the end of the book, he has made himself part of the fabric that makes up the Hundred Acre Wood as much as mainstays like Pooh and Piglet.

Reading this book to a child (albeit, a very young one) gave me a completely new perspective as when I read it previously, as not a father. Prior show more to having children, time was something I had in abundance. I could wait a week to do activity x or read book y or see movie z. Now, all of a sudden, I have hit a slippery slope. I come home from work every day and see an older child sitting where my younger child once lay. She is bigger, smarter, and a whole lot more aware of her surroundings with each passing day.

I believe that Milne saw this as well as he wrote Pooh Corner. Christopher Robin no longer drags Pooh up the stairs by his heel, but rather, now does “Nothing” with him, the last bit of Nothing he can do for a while, and so he savors it before his next temporary abduction by the Backson.

As a working adult, I have fond memories or things like summer vacation and recess, and wish that these factors were part of adult life. However, I know, and Milne knew, and Christopher Robin begins to learn, that the adult world is less fun and more serious. But it doesn’t mean that it’s any less enjoyable, especially when we can occasionally sit with the heroes and friends of our childhood and just do Nothing too. show less

Is Eeyore going to learn that being self-pitying is not the way to make friends? Of course one shouldn't repress one's feelings completely, but a little less whining would help him feel better and make him more attractive as a friend. Don't we all know people like this, and aren't they hard to be around?
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Oh Eeyore. Too bad he's actually got a thing about 'I'm smart, they're full of fluff' going on; it makes it very hard for me to feel empathy, or even compassion. In fact all of the characters except Pooh and Piglet are rather unlikeable at times. I wonder why we tend to overlook that fact. Because we've already done the growing up journey that CR is embarking upon?

Pooh's songs and hums are poetry. If you like them, don't claim you show more don't like poetry. Interestingly, Pooh claims that many of them 'just come to' him. The next line is the one that got my attention this read through: '"Ah!" said Rabbit, who never let things come to him, but always went and fetched them.' show less

There is something undeniably wholesome about Winnie-The-Pooh. These are the stories and characters that will stick in your mind, the ones that will float to the surface when you least expect it and make you smile. I grew up with the television shows, the films, and even now reading the book I can't help but hear those original voice actors in my head and smile. The world may change, but Winnie-the-Pooh remains the same and still strikes the same chords it did when I was a child; perhaps now it just strikes them all a bit harder.

[b: The House at Pooh Corner|776407|The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh, #2)|A.A. Milne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348195621s/776407.jpg|3244521] introduces Tigger to the bunch, and all of his show more accompanying mayhem. For all of his rambunctious, ill-fated enthusiasm he still becomes a lovable character when you realize he isn't all boast, and never acting with ill-intention. Friendships go in and out of flux, and certain things are realized. Rabbit learns to not meddle, and Piglet learns his bravery and Pooh's compassion. Even Eeyore, for a single moment, realizes that perhaps the reason that people don't visit him is the fact that he never visits them in the first place. These books never stop teaching life-long lessons, but in a more subtle, less patronizing way than many books.

In the end the world turns, but there is forever a shining moment that will never change. Like the first time, I cried with the final story and am glad that I had it in me to do so. These are truly beautiful books, and I'm grateful [a: A.A. Milne|81466|A.A. Milne|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1204664899p2/81466.jpg] had a quote and a table at my wedding. There is always something nice to be said about Pooh. show less