Lessons from the Hundred-Acre Wood: Stories, Songs, & Wisdom from Winnie the Pooh

A collection of stories, verse, and wisdom, eh?

The stories are mostly adaptations or riffs on the Disney films or A. A. Milne's original tales. The verse consists of little poems lightly integrated in the stories and then expanded to interstitials between the stories. I think they edge out the stories for being the best part of the book.

But the "wisdom" . . . ugh . . . are little aphorisms or responses to the stories that are slapped down at random times throughout the book in a different font and size as if they were important and worthy of study. But they are most definitely not. A sampling:

"A mostly sunny day, to some, can look a lot like partly gray."
"Anytime is a good time for a smackerel."
"Sometimes just being there takes show more courage."
"Thinking can be hard when someone else is talking."
"There's always room for hope."

Sickening. I might have rounded up to three stars for the book overall if not for the grating nature of these intrusions.

Humming Is Better with a Friend ~ 2 stars

Pooh wakes up with a new melody in his head. He's a little hurt that Eeyore and Rabbit aren't impressed, but Piglet collaborates with him to expand it and add lyrics.

• Verse: "A Basically Blue Sky" ~ 2 stars

The resulting poem seems like a response or tribute to the "Like a Rather Blustery Day" day song from the cartoons. But it seems more concerned with making the text of the poem resemble two right-pointing arrow tips.

How to Track a Woozle ~ 3 stars

An adaptation of Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter Three: "In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle." Pooh and Piglet circle around a tree as they follow tracks they suspect belong to a Woozle. A new hum is added to the original tale to help Piglet be brave in the face of imminent danger.

• Verse: "Whose Tracks?" ~ 3 stars

A fun little summary of the story. I only wish I could figure out the melody.

What Tiggers Do Best ~2 stars

A flawed adaptation of the second half of the 1974 Disney short film, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, which is in turn an adaptation of A. A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner Chapter Four: "In Which It Is Shown That Tiggers Don't Climb Trees."

Tigger gets stuck in a tree but gets to come down without making the empty promise about never bouncing again that Rabbit tries to hold him to. Instead, after Tigger's down, Rabbit goes around saying he wants to start a petition to stop Tigger's bouncing, but someone stands up to him and that puts a stop to it. The author tries to fix something that's not broken in order to squeeze in some sort of David and Goliath moral. Ugh.

• Verse: "I Bounce" ~ 2 stars

Tigger sings about the joys of bouncing. I'm not a bouncer myself and did not find myself persuaded by this paean.

Owl Talks About Brain ~ 2 stars

Owl rudely drones on to Pooh about how stupid or smart his various friends are, but Pooh is too sleepy to be offended. But his dream generates this horrifying image:

https://i.imgur.com/jhRbsQA.jpg

Chilling.

• Verse: "Some Have Brain" ~2 stars

No wonder the common man hates elitist intellectuals.

Pooh Learns More About Bees ~ 3 stars

In this direct sequel to Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter One: "In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees, and the Stories Begin" Pooh asks Christopher Robin to help him try the balloon/cloud deception on another hive of bees, one that is not filled, he hopes, with "the wrong sort of bees." It plays out exactly the same as the original tale, though with a new song, so I'm not sure why they bothered to make it a sequel instead of just letting it be a retelling.

• Verse: "Pooh's Reassuring Hum" ~3 stars

Not as good as the original song or the wonderful "Little Black Rain Cloud" that the Sherman Brothers created for the Disney film. Nice try, though.

Learning About Manners ~ 2 stars

Depending on your point of view, either Roo is being bratty or Kanga is being severe in this little tussle about etiquette. Either way, I was bored.

• Verse: "What Goes Up" ~ 3 stars

Pooh sings a fun little exercise ditty as he does his up-downs.

Rabbit's Big Plan ~ 2 stars

A slightly lacking adaptation of the first part of the Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too short film that is itself an adaptation of Milne's The House at Pooh Corner Chapter 7: "In Which Tigger Is Unbounced." All the story elements are there, but the writing just doesn't capture the magic of the other versions.

• Verse: "As a Rule" ~ 3 stars

Rabbit sings a little song to comfort himself while he is lost that is full of hubris, yet also reflects his worry and confusion.

Where's Eeyore's Tail? ~2 stars

Eeyore's tail is lost . . . again . . . as we continue to mine the Pooh canon's greatest hits. Things get corny when a couple members of the search party fall into a hole and the whole thing gets tied up in a silly manner.

• Verse: "It Was There . . . Now It's Gone" ~ 4 stars

Eeyore sings a lament about his missing tail. Why must his suffering be so darn cute?

Christopher Robin Goes to School ~ 2 stars

Time for an extremely short and bare-bones adaptation of Pooh's Grand Adventure, my least favorite of the Pooh movies. Even gutting most of the details does nothing to improve on the source material.

• Verse: "According to the Map" ~ 3 stars

I do love the soundtrack of Pooh's Grand Adventure, and this little ditty about maps reminded me pleasantly of Rabbit's big song from the film, "If It Says So."

How Long Is Forever?

Milne's The House at Pooh Corner Chapter Ten: "In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There" is the go to source for the ending (and sometimes beginnings) of any number of Pooh movies and books. Here it is again. Such a bittersweet ending seems unearned for this derivative collection of fluff and stuff.

• Verse: "How Long Is Forever?"

Meh.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:
• Introduction
• Humming Is Better with a Friend
• Verse: "A Basically Blue Sky"
• How to Track a Woozle
• Verse: "Whose Tracks?"
• What Tiggers Do Best
• Verse: "I Bounce"
• Owl Talks About Brain
• Verse: "Some Have Brain"
• Pooh Learns More About Bees
• Verse: "Pooh's Reassuring Hum"
• Learning About Manners
• Verse: "What Goes Up"
• Rabbit's Big Plan
• Verse: "As a Rule"
• Where's Eeyore's Tail?
• Verse: "It Was There . . . Now It's Gone"
• Christopher Robin Goes to School
• Verse: "According to the Map"
• How Long Is Forever?
• Verse: "How Long Is Forever?"

(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