Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood
Illustrator: Mark Burgess
Fiction Series
For ages 6 and up
Penguin, 2009 ISBN: 0525421602
One day summers day, Piglet tells Pooh about a rumor that is going around. Someone - no one knows who - has heard that Christopher Robin is coming back to the Hundred Acre Wood. After much discussion, the animals pass a Rissolution that they will have a Welcum Back Party for Christopher Robin. A table is set up on a mossy place and it is laid with the Kanga’s best tablecloth and Rabbit’s best china. A feast is set out and then the animals wait, and wait, and wait. Just when the animals are beginning to wonder if Christopher Robin is ever going to come, the little boy arrives riding on a bright blue bicycle. Everyone is happy to see Christopher, and they greatly enjoy the gifts that he has brought them.
With Christopher Robin around, all kinds of adventures unfold as the summer progresses. The animals learn that Christopher Robin has been away at school and they hold a spelling bee. Not much spelling takes place because no one can spell very well. Instead, everyone enjoys having tea and muffins at Christopher Robin’s house. Some time later, a newcomer joins the Hundred Acre Wood family, and she takes up residence in a tin trunk near Eeyore’s Gloomy Place. Rabbit attempts to organize everyone, and Pooh goes in search of bees.
For this delightful book, David Benedictus has created ten wonderful stories about Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. The stories perfectly capture that essence of Poohishness that made the first two Pooh books delightfully memorable. Readers who loved A.A. Milne’s quirky humor and his simple words of wisdom will not be disappointed when they read this book.
Mark Burgess’s artwork beautifully reflects the illustrations that Ernest H. Shephard created for the original Pooh books. With soft colors, Burgess has fashioned pictures that compliment the text.