In the years since Christopher Robin left the Hundred-Acre Wood, things have changed for the worse, and now Rabbit and Owl are recruiting armies for some reason to face off against each other. Pooh keeps out of the fray though, content to count his honey pots, rationing them through the winter until the bees start producing again.

But a stranger comes to the forest, an old man who won't say his name but hints at the fact that he knows Pooh and all his friends, constantly looking at them "fondly" or with "fondness" (definitely a potential drinking game here) using eyes that keep flickering between happiness and sadness . . . to a ridiculous degree. So Pooh leads the stranger around to talk to the friends one by one about the war and to look for Piglet, who has gone missing with one of Pooh's jars of honey.

If you cannot guess who the stranger is almost immediately, I can only assume you are not trying very hard.

This morose book is poorly written and edited. The ending is truly awful, making me better appreciate the artistry of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) ( )