"My First Winnie the Pooh Be Patient, Pooh" By Kathleen W. Zoehfeld, Illustrated By Robbin Cuddy

"My First Winnie The Pooh Be Patient, Pooh" By Kathleen W. Zoehfeld, Illustrated By Robbin Cuddy
Copyright 2000 By Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Isbn 0-439-30966--2


                              Who doesn't love the classic Winnie the Pooh stories? I have loved anything Disney and Winnie the Pooh read to me when I was a child, and in turn love reading these books to my classes. There is something about Winnie the Pooh that warms your heart at any age. For as long as I can remember, these stories are usually about adventures in the day in the life Pooh looking for his honey or Pooh and pals getting into mischief. This fictitious bear always makes us laugh and smile that without a doubt and leaves me with a warm heart by the end of each story.
                             There have been various stories about Pooh, or Pooh and friends that have touched out hearts. Many authors and illustrators have created and recreated stories around Winnie the Pooh since around the early 1920's.
                             The book I chose to discuss is "My First Winnie the Pooh Be Patient, Pooh" By Kathleen Zoehfeld, Illustrated By Robbin Cuddy. This book is a perfect example of modern fantasy because of it's fictitious characters that come to life that obviously do not happen in real life. The characters include Winnie the Pooh, who is  a talking bear, Rabbit, who is a talking rabbit, Piglet, who is a talking pig, Roo, who is a talking kangaroo, and Christopher Robbin, who is the only human character in this story. These characters except for Christopher are all animals that speak. The story is about Winnie the Pooh who is anxiously awaiting his birthday party that his friends are throwing for him. All day after every meal, he asks if it's time for his party, and the party isn't until dinner time. Pooh tries hard not to think about it too much, but it's so hard for poor Pooh to think about anything else. His friends in the meantime try to distract Pooh all day with other things, such as Christopher Robbin trying to distract Pooh by reading a book. Before Pooh knows it, it is dinner time so is the party that his pals helped decorate for! There was cake, gifts, balloons, and party hats, all what Pooh had imagined and even more so.
                              I love the way Kathleen W. Zoehfeld portrays Pooh in this book, and the valuable lesson a child can learn which is patience. Kathleen does a wonderful job showing this fictitious character try to find patience within himself for what he wants so bad to come, which is his birthday party. In most Winnie the Pooh books, we often learn lessons in each one. Kathleen W. Zoehfeld has written many Winnie the Pooh books and Robbin Cuddy illustrating them, including just to name a couple, "Don't Talk To Strangers Pooh", and "Pooh's First Day of School".

                              I love to read this as one of the first time Winnie the Pooh reads in my own class. I find that fictitious characters such as Pooh, grab a young child's attention better than a book without mystical creatures or characters in it would. I am a big advocate for books that obviously teach a valuable lesson to young children starting out in the reading world. As a child gets older, they tend to let go of such characters, but reminisce and realize there are no talking bears, pigs, kangaroos and so on. I feel it is important for modern fantasy to exist because it grabs the attention of a child the way that only these books could. It's a break from reality and a child's imagination is a powerful one that can be endless. Sometimes children need that break of reality to just be a kid.
                             The illustrations in all Pooh books including Kathleen W.Zoehfeld, illustrations by Robbin Cuddy are characters that come to life. They are bright, cheerful and almost cartoon/life-like as I like to put it, because they are neatly drawn and clearly come across to children of what is actually happening on each page.