Nostalgic Revisiting of a Classic Introduction to Pooh

Working in a bookstore, I see all sorts of books for toddlers and babies. They're bulky, mostly, featuring thick cardboard pages or puffy cloth ones, often with flaps to lift up or Velcro to unfasten. They're easy for small hands to grasp and entertaining enough that they will want to keep reaching for them again and again. Winnie-the-Pooh and His Friends was written for this age group, but it was released in the early seventies, which I'm guessing is before the board book boom. This book is unlikely to thrill many young hands, though its slick plasticky pages were clearly designed with those chubby infant fingers in mind. "Baby's First Book" is printed along the top of the cover, along with the promise that it "wipes clean," so the creators of the book were aiming to produce something that could withstand a relentless barrage of spit-up and baby food and all sorts of other goodies like that. It's a good idea, but the result is a book not much thicker than a piece of paper.

No author credit is given to this extremely slim volume, but it bears the stamp of a Whitman book, and the title is preceded by "Walt Disney presents". I'm guessing this came out to coincide with one of the Pooh films, perhaps Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!, which came out in 1974. That could be why the book ends with Pooh and Tigger shaking hands with one another, in order to leave the focus lingering on that title character. Not that a baby is likely to care too terribly much.

The book's binding is stitches, the threads clearly visible from the front, at least on my copy. The illustrations are quaint, lacking the intricate detail of later Pooh books and possessing a more English feel than most recent efforts. Everybody but Gopher makes an appearance over the course of the book's whopping three two-page spreads. A younger-than-usual-looking Christopher Robin entrances Pooh and Piglet with a reading from a mysterious book whose words are obscured, though the letter "C" within a circle is curiously legible on the right-hand side of his book. He is so pale that he looks almost sickly, but not quite; rather, he comes across like a porcelain doll, while Pooh and Piglet, with their single-pen-stroke smiles, seem hypnotically drawn to him.

On the next page, Pooh walks through the forest and greets Eeyore, Owl and Rabbit. Eeyore is perfectly miserable-looking, huddled next to his purple thistles with droopy ears and downcast eyes, looking for all the world like a basset hound. Rabbit, in an indication of his take-charge personality, greets Pooh before the bear can do the honors, shouting over to him with hands (or paws, though Rabbit's digits to seem much more human than rabbitish) cupped over his mouth. Meanwhile, Owl soars happily above it all.

The final spread shows Kanga and Roo, their fur couple of shades of brown darker than I'm used to seeing them, eating breakfast on their small wooden table. Kanga stands, and as tall as she is - and short as the table is - it seems this may be her traditional mealtime practice, particularly considering the fact that only one chair is in sight, and Roo is sitting in it. On the other side of the room, Tigger offers Pooh a hearty handshake, and from his gleeful expression I can easily imagine him chuckling, "Woo hoo hoo hoo!" The back cover sports an illustration as well, so I guess this would technically be considered the last page of the book, though I'm so unused to the back cover being a part of the story I can't be sure. But it brings together six of the characters - the four from the previous spread plus Piglet and Christopher Robin - for a view of Kanga easing some Strengthening Medicine into Roo's mouth via a spoon. A subtle message to kids, perhaps, to take their medicine or to eat the food offered to them?

Winnie-the-Pooh and His Friends is a wonderfully nostalgic book for fans, offering a look at the silly old bear that seems dated but nonetheless is charming. That's who I would recommend this book for, just as an interesting artifact. But for the intended audience of babies, there are so many books out there now that are designed so well, with much smaller, thicker pages that are bound to be easier to turn, I think the age of this book renders it undesirable. If you have it around the house, certainly give it a shot, but I wouldn't seek it out for a youngster in spite of what the cover says.