Milne wrote these stories based on his own son, Christopher Robin, and the toys that he
played with. I wonder if the stories are based on real games Christopher Robin played with his stuffed animals, or if Milne wrote them for the sake of something different for his son to be entertained by. Either way, it's impossible not to appreciate this book for the way that it captures the innocence, imagination, and ingenuity of childhood. The characters are all a little childlike in their own ways (even wise old Owl and grumpy-but-hilarious Eeyore), and the Wood itself is a physical representation of childhood. Milne's writing is very sophisticated, however, so even though it's targeted for young readers, the richness and subtleties of the book's language make reading it as an adult just as enjoyable as reading it as a kid (though I say that somewhat hypothetically, having only read this one as an adult).The House At Pooh Corner, however, I have been reading since I was ten. I can't remember if that was before or after I participated in the Winnie-the-Pooh play with Oddfellows, so I don't know if I joined the play because of the book or bought the book because of the play. Regardless, I've always loved it, and even though it's the second book in the collection, the stories within it stand fine on their own. Here, Eeyore and Owl get new houses, Tigger comes to the Wood, Piglet discovers he is useful after all, and everyone plays Poohsticks.
These are the only two books of stories about Pooh and his friends. Milne also wrote a book of children's poet
ry and a book of Pooh-centered poetry, neither of which I've read. I don't know if it's because he just ran out of stories to tell, or if what was happening in House At Pooh Corner was mirroring what was happening in real life: Christopher Robin was growing up and leaving behind his toys. A whole story is devoted to the animals in the Wood trying to figure out where Christopher Robin goes in the morning, and it is discovered that he has started going to school. In the final story, all the animals throw Christopher Robin a going-away party, and there is a real sense of finality with these proceedings. The ending is quite sad in its inevitability of the future: that even though Christopher Robin will sometimes be able to visit the Wood, eventually he will grow up enough that he will stop coming for good. There is a conveyance of hope that Christopher Robin will, at least, always remember Pooh no matter what, and even in his old age he will still understand and appreciate the imagination of his childhood and the friendships with his toys.Finally, just because Ben had a copy on his bookshelf, I read The Tao of Pooh by Benjami
n Hoff. I really didn't have any expectations, good or bad, about this book, but in the end it really didn't make much of an impression on me. The title really says it all; Hoff links the ancient philosophy of Taoism to Milne's characters. It's a decent concept, but Hoff's execution is a little awkward. The bits about Taoism are interesting and, on the surface, applicable to the Poohverse, but he illustrates his points with excerpts from Milne's stories that are way. too. long. I really felt that all his Pooh quotations could have been paragraphs shorter, and more infused with analysis rather than mere summary. Further, Hoff doesn't always seem to fully explain what his Pooh quotes really mean to him or why he's tying them to Taoism, so he doesn't always do a very good job of explicitly linking the two. It's not that the ideas he presents are all that complex or difficult to comprehend, but sometimes he doesn't always make it clear why he includes the quotes that he does. Overall, the book didn't really give me any new insights into the world of Pooh, but it did help me begin to learn a little about Taoism.
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