This children's picture book tells the charming true story of how a North American black bear came to live at the London Zoo, and how A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh came to be named after this bear.
The book is written by the great-granddaughter of the bear's owner, and the story is presented as a bedtime story between her and her young son named Cole. While the premise is sweet, the storytelling lacked a certain flow... I think I found the conversational interjections by mother-and-son to be more distracting than cute. The focus on their own personal connection to the story made me feel like this story is more "theirs"; maybe I had too-high expectations, but as a Winnie-the-Pooh fan, I was hoping to feel more connected to the story, but instead I sort of felt like I was looking through a glass window.
I think what really makes the book worth reading are the illustrations by Sophie Blackall. They are soft and lovely, evoking a sense of tenderness. While the text is informative, it's really the illustrations that make the book a pleasant read.
I also really enjoyed the black-and-white photos of Winnie the bear, and her owner, Harry. Though I did find it odd that the photo collection included a black-and-white photo from 2013 of the author and her son... I guess it's a way to show how the story of Harry and Winnie live on, but it also sort of felt like another distraction from the original story.
Incidentally, when this book was recommended to me, I looked it up in the library, only to find that there were TWO non-fiction children's picture books published in 2015 about the real bear who inspired the name of Winnie-the-Pooh!? I don't know how the publishing world works, but I certainly found this discovery surprising. The other book, Winnie: The True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh, I actually thought was slightly better, and is also worth a read.
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