Posted on 10/19/2009 7:41:26 AM PDT by rhema
Pity the person who attempts to update an icon—particularly if that icon is charming, ageless, fuzzy and embraced by children all over the world. Last week, Dutton Children's Books released "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood," the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne's beloved Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which were first published in the 1920s. Over the years the Pooh Properties Trust has received many unsolicited proposals for a sequel, but it only recently approved British writer David Benedictus as the author of the first new Pooh book in nearly 80 years.
In Milne's original stories, "The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner," our stuffed hero, a teddy bear that belongs to a young boy named Christopher Robin, spends his days singing, writing poems, visiting his friends and counting up and devouring the contents of his honey pots (with occasional breaks to perform Stoutness Exercises). Although the stories occasionally teeter on the edge of twee, the characters, such as fussy Piglet, cynical Eeyore and clever Rabbit, are sharply, affectionately drawn, and the book is full of the kind of not-quite-correct language that young children often use to great effect. Reacting to the dutiful applause of his friends after reciting a poem, Eeyore says: "Unexpected and gratifying, if a little lacking in Smack."
The author of the new Winnie-the-Pooh sequel didn't believe the old stories lacked Smack. What they lacked, apparently, was a civilizing feminine influence, and so Mr. Benedictus has given us a new character, Lottie, a boastful, bossy otter who emerges from a boggy section of the Hundred Acre Wood to prod and scold its inhabitants. If the notion of a modern-style Super-nanny in the Hundred Acre Wood sounds disconcerting, it is. And it doesn't help that Lottie is one annoying otter.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Why do these people insist upon destroying my childhood. I just recently found out that the Letter People were changed in the 90’s to reflect a more politically correct society. What a load of crap.
The original stories had Kanga.
And of course, Piglet has been gay all along, but now they will probably modernize him also.
I see him co-habitating with some other male piglets (or even some other species) to hatch a brood of chicks abandoned by their violent and unstable conservative father and feckless, traditional mother.
ping
And in the second authorized sequel, do we find out that Lottie is a lesbian?
I think I'll pass.
and roo.
Aggh! My childhood pals and the Three-Acre Wood, corrupted...
Bump for later read. BTW, I saw Rabbit as the bossy old crank character.
Quite so. In the Recorded Book, they had chirpy Aussie accents.
Do otters eat beavers?
Try reading a pc version of Nancy Drew/ Hardy Boys. Bleh!
And try, just try finding a copy of Little Black Sambo.
If you have any old copies of either, you better hang on to them! LOL
***our stuffed hero, a teddy bear that belongs to a young boy named Christopher Robin, ****
Oh I miss Calvin and Hobbes!
(Dont fret, I have the complete works of Calvin an Hobbes)
I see this as a parable for our times.
I named my oldest dog Roo and hence my screen name. :)
I'm much less concerned about an authorized sequel (even with Otter) than I am about the Disneypooh, which is nauseating.
I had that same problem with trying to find the Complete Tales of Uncle Remus. The book I found in a local book store had been “abridged”, AKA re-written so it could be more PC.
Almost right. He didn’t come from a boggy section of the United States, but other than that, spot on.
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