Hipy Papy Bthuthdy, Winnie-the-Pooh!

Ack!  Winnie the Pooh is 90 years old, today!  Wow.  That's original fluff-brained Pooh, not cute-i-fied ad nauseam Disney Winnie.  When it comes to Pooh and Christopher Robin and Piglet, I am a Milne/Shepard ONLY fan.   I especially dislike what Disney did to Eeyore, who has been my favorite character since I reached adulthood.

Winnie and his friend, Piglet, live in a glass display case in the New York Public Library, now.  These toys are the original stuffed animals on which A. A. Milne based his stories.  Rabbit, Rabbit's Friends and Relations and Owl are based on actual animals.  Everyone else was a member of Christopher Robin's bedroom menagerie.  Except the Heffalump.  I'm not sure where the Heffalump came from.

To mark this august occasion, Christopher Robin's estate allowed the first-ever "authorized" sequel to The House at Pooh Corner to be published in 2009.  Return to the 100 Acre Wood by David Benedictus introduced a new wild character and brought back all of the old favorites.  I still like the old stories, the ones I and my son grew up with, best of all.

Don't forget the Jack Gantos giveaway has another week to go.   (Yeah, I just linked to my own blog in my blog!)