The Christopher Robin Collection by A A Milne and E H Shepard
| The Christopher Robin Collection by A A Milne and E H Shepard | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Morris
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| Summary: A wonderful new look at some old friends, this is a selection of original Pooh stories and verse. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 160 | Date: October 2017 |
| Publisher: Egmont | |
| ISBN: 978-1405288019 | |
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The Christopher Robin Collection is a compilation of stories and poems and what not, from A. A. Milne's original works, so it's a new book but with existing content, perfect for re-remembering as Owl might say, but equally good for discovering for the very first time, just like Pooh and the North Pole (Discovered by Pooh…Pooh found it).
Pooh, Christopher Robin and the whole gang are timeless, and as welcoming today as they ever were. The stories showcase their original characters from the pre-Disney era and are perfectly matched by E. H. Shepard's original illustrations. The Pooh stories stay with me like song lyrics, meaning it can be years or even decades since I last enjoyed them, but a quick nudge in the right direction and it all comes flooding back, often word for word. Both the stories and the poems featured heavily in my childhood, and I even enacted a piece for a Speech and Drama exam circa 1994 which can still be reeled out on demand.
I think some people might be more familiar with the stories than some of the rhymes. I don't quite remember The Friend for example, and reading it now it has a deliciously wicked end to it that I really don't recall And then it doesn't matter what the answer ought to be, 'cos if he's right I'm right, and if he's wrong it isn't me. I mean really! Christopher Robin, I'm certainly starting to see you in a new light.
There was only one slight oddity in the choice of which tales to include, and that was where we had the story about a party for Pooh but without the preceding story about his bravery and what exactly it was he did to warrant such a fuss being done. Even the anxious poem (Three cheers for Pooh! For who? For Pooh! Why what did he do? I thought you knew…) doesn't fill in all the gaps about the time Piglet was entirely surrounded by water and needed to be saved from a wetting.
Overall, though, the book works well, weaving the poems in-between the stories and of course featuring Pooh's 'hums'. Some of the stories are maybe a bit long for reading aloud because they don't have chapters within them, but you can usually find a good space to stop if you want to (and of course, you're unlikely to want to).
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review. It's a lovely new edition and would make a wonderful gift to bring across a little piece of your childhood into theirs.
Oh so many years after the wonderful original books came an authorised sequel Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus and though we tend to be sceptical about such things, this one is definitely worth a look.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Christopher Robin Collection by A A Milne and E H Shepard at Amazon.com.
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