Phew! I can breathe easy. “Return to the Hundred Acre Wood” is delightfully in step with the original Pooh books by A. A. Milne. I believe Milne would be delighted to see his work carried on in a fashion so true to his own.

As a mother of three I have grown to love the Pooh books in adulthood while sharing them with my children. Our family favorites have been “Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood” and “The World of Christopher Robin.”

“Return to the Hundred Acre Wood,” is a more difficult book for preschool aged children to follow simply because of the language, but it has captivated myself and my third grade boy. We are so happy to be back in the Hundred Acre Wood with new adventures and even a new friend in Lottie the Otter.

I must admit I was worried about the introduction of a new character invented by someone other than Milne, but Lottie seems to fit with our cherished old friends as though she were always meant to join them. (In my anticipation post regarding the Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, I referred to Lottie as a boy.  I’m not sure why I made that assumption… maybe because I had heard the character was an avid fan of the game of cricket…. sorry about that… it turns out Lottie is very much a lady otter.  Good thing too because until now Kanga was the only female in the bunch.)

Even though Lottie is a wonderful new addition, it is really the return of our favorite time tested characters with their delightful funny charm that makes this new book so great.

Like this charming moment with our loveable Pooh:

“Pooh…was wondering… whether one could train bees to make honey straight into pots, because then they could use the combs to brush their hair without it getting sticky. If bees have hair.” (pg. 12-13)

And this laughable comment from our meticulous and usually overreacting friend Rabbit:

“It’s just as well there’s somebody around these parts who has some sense… otherwise anything might happen.’ And if someone asked Rabbit what that anything might be, he would reply: ‘Pirates, revolution, things thrown on the ground and not picked up.’” (pg 38)

Chapter Five, In Which Pooh Goes in Search of Honey, is one of my favorites in the new book, and a great example of David Benedictus’s ability to write new material seamlessly cohesive with the Pooh books of old.  And though the content in this new book is seamless in character, setting, and language, with the original Pooh books, I couldn’t help but find little tidbits in each chapter (intentional or not) which gave attention to some modern day issues.

In Chapter Five when Pooh discovers he is almost out of honey he goes to the great oak where the honeybees have always been, but now surprisingly, they are gone.  This makes for a great chapter in the book, but also delivers that eerie feeling the world is currently experiencing with the mysterious loss of thousands of bee colonies.

There is also a hilarious scene in Chapter Three where Rabbit decides a census must be taken.  In light of the coming American census currently being organized, with a debate brewing over the intentions behind it, and a scandal surrounding the organization ACORN who was helping to create the census, I couldn’t help but laugh at the following scene:

“What we most need around here is a Census… The ancient Britons did it… and once they knew who there was and where they were,’ Rabbit paused to catch up with himself, ‘they could tax them.’

‘Why did they want to?’ Christopher Robin asked, reasonably enough.

‘To pay for the Census, of course,’ answered Rabbit. ‘I thought everybody knew that.’

As word got about, the other animals expressed their doubts…

Piglet said, ‘It’s not a Census, it’s a Nonsensus,” and then blushed at his cleverness.” (pg 40- 41)

Mark Burgess did a wonderful job creating classic beautiful illustrations for the book.  The only qualm I would make about them is that Roo looks like a squirrel instead of a kangaroo. Kanga is drawn perfectly as a Kangaroo, so I’m not quite sure why Roo is illustrated so strangely.

This made me crazy throughout the book and it took quite a bit of work to convince my kids that these pictures truly were of Roo.

All in all the book is wonderful and I’m so happy to now own it.  I know it is one of those that will be read over and over in my home through the years.  Thank you to David Benedictus, and Mark Burgess, for remaining so true to the original works of Milne, and thank you to all those at Pooh properties who allowed this book to happen.

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is the perfect addition to the libraries of all Pooh fans!