The Hundred-Acre Wood is experiencing a bit of a drought, and Pooh's favorite tree starts turning brown, so he rallies his friends to help water it. In a forced coincidence, everyone else loves that particular tree too for different reasons, so they're eager to assist . . with a touch of slapstick clumsiness.
It's a fairly bland story, but it might have won me over except for the artists' insistence on drawing Pooh's head in unflattering angles, always have him looking down or slightly away from the reader. There's not a single straight-on Pooh grin or a joyful smackerel of honey to be found in the book. Gimme the honey shot! Show me the honeyyyyyyy!
(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... )
My son got this from the American Library in Paris for signing up to participate in their summer reading challenge. He chose it from among many other books. He loves Winnie the Pooh. So do I, and this Disney version is very well done. The narrative is very close to the style of A.A. Milne and the artwork is wonderful! The story is lovely too. The friends of the Hundred Acre Woods realize their favorite tree, a tree dear to each of them for various reasons, is suffering in the hot, dry summer weather. The band together to help it and in their typical bumbling fashion are successful.
Pooh notices a favorite tree doesn't look good and he asks Rabbit for help, Rabbit says the tree needs water and all the friends work together to help the tree.
There is something magical about Winnie the Pooh. It doesn't matter how old you are, there is still something to love about the Hundred Acre Wood. This tale is very faithful to the original stories, which is probably why I liked it so much. The only thing I was curious about was where Christopher Robin was during this. But maybe he had already "left for boarding school" or something.
Even better than the charming narrative is the charity that the book's profits went to. I bought it was part of the Kohl's Cares for Kids campaign, which offers support to children's education and health.
I bought this book for my nephew's baby shower, and I'm sure that there will be a new generation of Winnie the Pooh fans with revival stories like this one. Overall, if you want to get a great storybook for the kids, you can't go wrong with this one.
Winnie the Pooh is one of my fuzzies childhood stories, even though I know it essentially destroyed Christopher Robin's life (seriously -- look it up). This is a tale told to invoke those old time feels, and it works wonderfully. I purchased it as a baby shower gift, and I'm sure a new generation of Winnie the Pooh fans is getting ready to have an adventure in The Hundred Acre Wood.
Pooh and his friends work together to save one of their favorite trees in the Hundred Acre Woods. They bring it water and plant another tree right next to it to "keep it company". Good book for talking about nature (what we need to do to keep plants alive) and teamwork.