Kate Saunders (1) (1960–2023)

Some pretty decent writers do passable impressions of A. A. Milne around some nice illustrations in the style of E. H. Shepard.

Autumn: in which Pooh and Piglet prepare to meet a Dragon / Paul Bright
~3 stars~
Christopher Robin cannot be disturbed as he prepares for his role in the school play as St. George the dragon slayer. In his absence, Piglet gets all worked up that a dragon is coming to the Hundred-Acre Wood and pulls everyone else into his fear spiral. Meanwhile, Eeyore is desperate to keep credit for finding a shiny thing buried in the ground. It's fluff, but a cute little joke about uncomfortable pauses actually felt like something Milne would write.

Winter: in which Penguin arrives in the Forest / Brian Sibley
~3 stars~
Based on an actual photo of Milne, Christopher Robin and the original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal looking at a penguin doll, this story is a bit macabre. First, Owl gets all prejudiced and downright enraged by the non-flying bird and takes his speciesist ass right out of the story in a huff without redemption or comeuppance. And then toward the end, the tone gets very dark as Penguin disappears and Christopher Robin gets ominously vague as to where he went or if he'll return. I genuinely fear for Penguin's fate and wonder if it involves something that might occur in Sid's room in the first Toy Story movie.

Spring: in which Eeyore suspects Another Donkey is after his thistles / Jeanne Willis
~2 stars~
A very predictable and labored story about paranoia, reflections and mistaken identity. Rabbit's friends and relations show up, but get treated as second-class citizens when it comes time to sit for tea and they are consigned to chat amongst themselves under the table, beneath the notice of the main characters. Nasty.

Summer: in which Pooh dreams of the Sauce of the Nile / Kate Saunders
~3 stars~
An amusing expotition has Pooh and friends trying to find find the headwaters of the stream that runs through the Hundred-Acre Wood. Not a lot happens as the trail leads up to the inevitable book-closing party, but the dialogue is snappy and reminiscent of Milne, and Kanga gets to shine more than usual. Very nice.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Exposition -- Acknowledgments -- Autumn: in which Pooh and Piglet prepare to meet a Dragon / Paul Bright -- Winter: in which Penguin arrives in the Forest / Brian Sibley -- Spring: in which Eeyore suspects Another Donkey is after his thistles / Jeanne Willis -- Summer: in which Pooh dreams of the Sauce of the Nile / Kate Saunders -- Afterword / Paul Bright, Brian Sibley, Jeanne Willis, Kate Saunders

(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... )… (altro)

I got this from the library as a recorded book, and alas, the CD player in my ancient truck is on life support. I limped along to disc six being able to listen to only about 15 minutes at a time before the player began stuttering out lines three or four words at a time before dying altogether.

I didn't finish it. Not because of the book itself, but technical difficulties and the looming overdue notice.

Thoroughly enjoyed the premise and the reader's voice. Was sucked into the story. As it was so difficult to advance to the place where the CD player died, (had to start at the beginning and click click click to where I thought we were before, hoping that it wouldn't give up and spit the disc out which often happened) I got annoyed that there were still 4? more discs to go. Felt like we were farther along and wrapping things up. Will try again at some point.… (altro)