A.W. Wright

Public domain Pooh!

In this weird little story, the animal friends of the Hundred Acre Wood wait out a storm, with them all uncharacteristically talking about death and one even suggesting they eat one of their group. Just when they think the storm has passed and hold a picnic to celebrate, a tornado descends and whisks them from the forest.

Cut to a lonely little boy named Chris who meets a group of new kids after school, among them a hungry boy named Arthur, a scared boy named Farrow, a bouncy boy named Tom, and a sad boy named Jack. Chris is convinced there is more to these boys than they realize, that they are friends he once knew, and that they need to experiment to help them get past their amnesia and present appearances.

It's like The Wizard of Oz ("And you, and you, and you, and you were there! But you couldn't have been, could you?") got tossed into a blender with Pooh's Grand Adventure and jelled into the blandest of salads.

A handful of Ernest H. Shepard's classic Pooh illustrations are sprinkled throughout to little effect.

Intriguingly odd, but disappointingly meh.

(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... )… (meer)