Jamie SimonsRecensioni

Birthday

A collection of mostly mediocre short stories of about three pages each. There are a few gems, but not enough for an overall thumbs up.

The Friendship Bridge ~ 3 stars

With a bridge covered in wet paint between them, Pooh and Piglet try to figure out how to get to Eeyore on the other side. A silly but amusing story about impatience.

A Honey of a Cake ~ 3 stars

Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger want to help Rabbit bake, but as Rabbit fears, " . . . too many cooks spoil the honey cake." Fortunately, they are able to find a silver lining to the subsequent disaster.

The Best Gift of All ~ 2 stars

Roo makes the round of his friends asking for suggestions for his Mother's Day gift to Kanga. Eeyore gives the right answer but is ignored -- figures! The final gift is too corny for me.

Rabbit's Reunion ~ 2 stars

When Pooh hears Rabbit is hosting a family reunion, his first thought is to put on a bunny costume and secretly crash the party? A weird but intriguing concept peters out in the end.

Help for Hiccups ~2 stars

Tigger's hiccups cause him to be more destructive than usual as he loses control of his bouncing. His friends try various remedies to stop them and the chaos they're causing.

Pooh's Bright Idea ~ 2 stars

Instead of disguising himself as a little black rain cloud, this time Pooh thinks he can fool the bees into thinking he's a harmless firefly by tying a flashlight to his back. His flashing light wakes up the whole Hundred-Acre Wood, bees included.

Piglet and the Boowuzzle Monster ~ 2 stars

The Pooh friends get startled by a sound at the door while reading a scary story one night and are surprised by which of them acts the bravest.

Pooh and the Pot of Gold ~ 2 stars

A rainbow sets off a fruitless quest for a pot of gold that Pooh hopes might contain honey. If anything, it's full of corn, considering the ending..

Eeyore's Amazing Adventure ~ 2 stars

Ugh, a story about using your imagination. I hate using my imagination, that's why I read books with pictures.

Pooh's Garden ~ 2 stars

Rabbit railroads Pooh into making his own garden, though Pooh despairs it has no flowers to attract bees and no tree to hold a hive. I despair the story is not fun or interesting.

Roo and the Baby-Sitter ~ 3 stars

Kanga is always eager to find a new babysitter. Eeyore gets his turn and comes up with a clever way to get a rambunctious Roo to settle down to sleep.

Tigger's Bounce ~ 2 stars

Tigger's bouncing gets him banned from a raft ride with his friends. Inevitably his bouncing saves the day when the raft gets stuck.

Fair-Weather Friends ~ 2 stars

Piglet is scared of the big thunderstorm lashing the Hundred-Acre Wood, but his friends show up to comfort him. Ho-hum.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: The Friendship Bridge -- A Honey of a Cake -- The Best Gift of All -- Rabbit's Reunion -- Help for Hiccups -- Pooh's Bright Idea -- Piglet and the Boowuzzle Monster -- Pooh and the Pot of Gold -- Eeyore's Amazing Adventure -- Pooh's Garden -- Roo and the Baby-Sitter -- Tigger's Bounce -- Fair-Weather Friends

(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... )

Roo persuades Kanga to extend his bedtime so he can investigate the animals that come out at night in the Hundred-Acre Wood. They walk around looking at animals all night. And that's it.

And another Pooh series is finished . . . just in time for some Pooh Halloween books!

(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... )

Tigger is losing a game of hide-and-seek with a brown hare, so everyone joins in to help find it. As Roo finds out that various creatures hide themselves by blending in with their surrounding, kids will enjoy trying to find the secret hare hidden on almost every page. (I'm choosing to believe there were a few pages without the hare rather than admitting I couldn't find it.)

It got a little too real when Owl went full predator and sought to spot the hare while in flight. It really upped the stakes for the hare's hiding ability.

(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... )

Roo's favorite shirt feels smaller one morning and pretty soon that snowballs into him persuading his friends that the entire Hundred-Acre Wood must be shrinking instead of jumping to the more obvious conclusion. Stories spun around such stupidity always make me grit my teeth.

I do have to point out that Kanga is a mistress of chaos. As seems to happen many times, despite knowing what's really going on, she just stays mum and lets Roo run off and stir everyone up outside so she can hang in the house and chill or do chores without interruption. Cheaper than a babysitter.

(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... )

Pooh learns a lesson about trust and responsibility when he looks after Christopher Robin's toys, while I get reinforcement for a lesson I learned long ago: looking after other people's crap or asking someone to look after my precious treasures creates a minefield of stress and hurt feelings best avoided when possible.

(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... )

Tigger's bouncing gets him in trouble again, and he must learn to atone and apologize. I identify with Rabbit too much to want to see him suffer again at the tail of Tigger yet again.

(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... )

Another case of Disney recycling. Times two. First, the title Oh, Bother! Someone Won't Share! has already been used a decade before by an entirely different story by Betty G. Birney featuring Rabbit learning a lesson about sharing. Second, this story has the same pictures as Sharing Can Be Fun and many of the same words, but someone has fiddled with the text on every page, changing or dropping words and adding sentences.

Well, I guess I'll just recycle my review from yesterday about Sharing Can Be Fun the same way:

Rabbit is always the go to villain in the Hundred-Acre Wood. Here the Pooh friends passive-aggressively pressure him into sharing a log he intended to use in his garden as a shady seat so they can all go on a cool ride down the stream on a hot day. I hope this book doesn't get banned for being a blatant display of evil socialism triumphing.

I'm really loving the art by Atelier Philippe Harchy in this series.

(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... )

Rabbit is always the go to villain in the Hundred-Acre Wood. Here the Pooh friends use peer pressure and passive aggressiveness to guilt him into sharing a log he intended to use in his garden as a shady seat so they can all go on a cool ride down the stream on a hot day. Socialism at work! A new book to ban!

Really loving the art by Atelier Philippe Harchy in this series.

(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... )

In this book the author is teaching children that sharing matters. If it weren't for Rabbit they would have never found the perfect log but also if they didn't tell rabbit he couldn't sit in the front then they never would have gotten to use his log.

The story of Dionysus the son of Zeus. The story shows how a group of pirates capture Dionysus thinking that they will hold him for ransom. He explains that he is the son of Zeus and they mock him. Dionysus transforms into a huge god surrounded by a lion and forces his captures into the sea a dolphins for life. The ideal for this book is that the dolphins help guide others throughout the sea. I did not know too much about Greek mythology the book gave me new information and offered great illustration. The book also used aged appropriate language when it came to introducing Greek mythology. I read this to my daughter who is in first grade and she enjoyed learning about it. Great tool to introduce the different people like Zeus in mythology. Great for Grades one to five.

I don't like spiders but this book is interesting. I mean the book could have a better story line. The plot is good and great for older students.

Not much to say about this book except that it's a fun read for little kids. One benefit for parents... it allows the kids to almost watch the movie, just quieter.

This is science fiction because it includes technology, Flubber, that does not actually exist, but is crucial to the story. The setting of the story is modern America on the east coast. The college that is mentioned is Medfield college, which does not actually exist, but is named after the town of Medfield, Massachusetts.½