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Return To The Hundred Acre Wood (2009)

by David Benedictus(Favorite Author)

4.07 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0525421602 (ISBN13: 9780525421603)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Dutton Juvenile

review 1: Difficult one. I'm not sure whether this was actually written for children, with the intention that they would read it after "The house at Pooh Corner" and see it as a sequel, or whether it is for middle-aged adults (lots of the blurb mentions the 80 year gap, so maybe the latter?) Personally I think it's quite sad really (as is the end of the original - we know that Christopher Robin is going to grow up and put his bear and friends behind him, but somewhere a boy and his bear, &c. ...) So, is it an 80-year gap, or has Christopher Robin merely been away at school (whither he returns at the end of this book, to be awaited, forever? by Pooh and Piglet)? In some ways this captures the spirit of the original, and you can almost believe that they are all carrying on where they ... moreleft off - and yet, too many specific things which don't quite fit (songs which belong to a later period, but behaviour which on the whole is quite old-fashioned - or is it just that Christopher Robin is at an old-fashioned public school?) The author says "like" where surely anyone with his apparent background would say "as if" - and the stories don't all quite ring true. The characters of the animals are pretty consistent with the originals, though, and the illustrations are brilliant - worth it for those! One for the adults rather than the children, though, I think.
review 2: Pooh is Pooh by being understated, don't you know. This soi-disant 'return' has its moments. Benedictus captures some of the simple silly and gravity of the Hundred Acre Wood. But he's more saccharine and treacly and detailed than Milne. And when one has to explain, or name an excess of rabbity relations, one loses all the being-in-on-the-joke, so to speak, of a child's language. Milne took things for granted -- just like a child will, when explaining, things adult think need explaining, but really don't. Benedictus has too much fun explaining or being clever. less

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