''Winnie-the-Pooh: The Best Bear in All the World'' is the second authorised

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...

's original ''

Winnie-the-Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Win ...

'' stories. It was published on 6 October 2016 to mark the 90th anniversary of the

publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Conve ...

of the first ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' book. The sequel is an anthology of four short stories, each written by a leading children's author. The four contributors are Paul Bright, Jeanne Willis, Kate Saunders, and Brian Sibley. The

illustrations An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...

, in the style of the originals by E. H. Shepard, are by Mark Burgess. The book attracted national press coverage because of the introduction of a new character, Penguin.

Plot

Each of the stories is devoted to one of the seasons in the

Hundred Acre Wood The Hundred Acre Wood (also spelled as 100 Aker Wood, Hundred-Acre Wood, and 100 Acre Wood; also known as simply "The Wood") is a part of the fictional land inhabited by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Winnie-the-Pooh series of children's s ...

, opening with "Autumn" by Paul Bright.

Christopher Robin Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney ...

is excited to be appearing as St George in the village play, but he alarms

Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Winn ...

and Piglet with talk of a dragon. Meanwhile,

Eeyore Eeyore ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-th ...

is possessively guarding Something Interesting, but is it something AD or something BC? With so many questions to ask what can the friends do when

has asked not to be disturbed? "Winter" by Brian Sibley introduces a new character, Penguin. Christopher Robin says Penguin needs Bringing Out of Himself. But will Penguin stay long enough for the friends to get to know him? In "Spring" by Jeanne Willis, the birds are nesting and Winnie-the-Pooh is admiring the daffodils and humming to himself when he encounters Eeyore feeling gloomy because he is convinced that another donkey is after his thistles. Pooh sets out to find this other donkey and Piglet agrees to help as long as the other donkey is not a

Heffalump A Heffalump is a type of elephant-like character in the Winnie the Pooh stories by A. A. Milne. Heffalumps are mentioned, and only appear, in Pooh and Piglet's dreams in ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' (1926), and seen again in ''The House at Pooh Corner'' ...

. In "Summer" by Kate Saunders, Christopher Robin tells Winnie-the-Pooh all about the Sauce of the Nile, which makes Pooh wonder if the river in the Hundred Acre Wood also has its own sauce so he sets off with Piglet, Rabbit,

Tigger Tigger is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic stuffed tiger. He was originally introduced in the 1928 story collection '' The House at Pooh Corner'', the sequel to the 1926 book ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' by A. A. Milne. Like other Pooh char ...

and the others to find out.

The new character

Shortly before publication it was announced that ''The Best Bear in All the World'' would introduce a new character to the Hundred Acre Wood in the form of Penguin. ''The Guardian'' reports how author Brian Sibley was inspired to create the character by a photograph of

's son, Christopher (the real

), with a toy penguin. Sibley said, "For me, the challenge was more than just attempting to play A. A. Milne in his own literary game. I also wanted to find a way of successfully introducing a brand new character into Pooh's world, whilst being sympathetic to the tone and

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

of the original books. The thought of Pooh encountering a penguin seemed no more outlandish than his meeting a kangaroo and a tiger in a Sussex wood, so I started thinking about what might have happened if, on a rather snowy day, Penguin had found his way to Pooh Corner." ''The Stylist reports that Penguin is the first new character to be authorised by the Milne estate. ''The Independent'' reports that the original penguin toy is also thought to have been bought at Harrods. "The toy department where Mrs.Milne bought the iconic bear hosted a huge array of stuffed animals," said Harrods archivist Sebastian Wormell. "In the early years of the 20th century, toy penguins soared in popularity as the exploits of Antarctic explorers such as Shackleton and Scott fascinated the public. We believe that the toy pictured could be Squeak, which originated in our 1922 catalogue and came from ''

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred ''Pip, Squeak and Wilfred'' was a British strip cartoon published in the ''Daily Mirror'' from 1919 to 1956 (with a break c. 1940–1950), as well as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' in the early years. It was conceived by Bertram Lamb, who took the role ...

'', a popular cartoon-strip."

Other sequels

This is the second authorised sequel to Milne's original stories. The first, ''

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood ''Return to the Hundred Acre Wood'' is a '' Winnie-the-Pooh'' novel published on 5 October 2009. Written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess, it was the first such book since 1928 and introduced the character Lottie the Otter. ...

'', was written by

David Benedictus David Henry Benedictus (born 16 September 1938) is an English writer and theatre director, best known for his novels. His work includes the Winnie-the-Pooh novel ''Return to the Hundred Acre Wood'' (2009). It was the first such book in 81 years. ...

and also illustrated by Mark Burgess. This also introduced a new character, Lottie the Otter. Another special adventure was conceived for Pooh's 90th birthday, ''

Winnie-the-Pooh Meets the Queen ''Winnie-the-Pooh Meets the Queen'' (e-book edition published as ''Winnie-the-Pooh and the Royal Birthday'') is a 2016 children's book written to celebrate the 90th birthdays of both the fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh and Queen Elizabeth ...

'', in which Pooh visits Buckingham Palace for the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday.

References

{{Winnie-the-Pooh 2016 children's books Winnie-the-Pooh books British children's books Children's books about bears Children's books about pigs Children's books about tigers Children's books about penguins Egmont Books books Cultural depictions of Christopher Robin Milne