Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

I've already posted a Winnie-the-Pooh love post but I'm going to do it again so I may express my admiration for the true author of the Pooh bear (no, it's not Walt Disney).

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

As you can see in the picture above, I have multiple copies of this beloved character.  Why?  Well, have you read the stories?  If you've only seen the Disney versions of these tales, you are sorely missing out.  Yes, the Disney versions are based on these stories.  I remember watching the Pooh story when he gets stuck in Rabbit's tree cause he's too fat.  But then I actually read the original story and it just seemed more true, much softer....more raw.  I don't know what it is, but I love the little naked bear compared to the bear with the red shirt.

Only 4 books were written about Pooh.  Two are actual novels and the other two are poem compilation books that include some poems about the characters.

When We Were Very Young - published in 1924
Winnie-the-Pooh - published in 1926
Now We Are Six - published in 1927
The House at Pooh Corner - published in 1928

As you can see, the original Winnie-The-Pooh book was not the first appearance, even though it's the first novel about the bear and his friends.  When you read the book, you will see a poem in there called "Teddy Bear".  This is about Christopher Robin's stuffed bear, which will eventually become Winnie-the-Pooh in further stories.

So let me go through each of these books that I have.  The one pictured above is the FULL complete set....the one I highly recommend getting cause it will be the cheapest out of all of them.  They include the two novels plus the two poem books.  I currently have two copies.  The first I purchased on Thriftbooks and the other I found with a dust jacket at a thrift store for $4.00.  Thriftbooks is only about $1.00 more expensive (plus .99 cent shipping if you don't order more than $10) and I've only seen the book once in the last 3 years in a thrift store.  You can click here to purchase from Thriftbooks if you'd rather not wait that long to find a copy:

The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh by: A. A. Milne $4.84

or if you are a person who is strictly Amazon, you will be paying around $8 plus shipping for a used copy, but you can purchase here to do that:
                                                                    

There are also these two beauties as well.  These are smaller so they are much easier to handle and are very classy looking on a bookshelf.  I only have the two novels because I found these two at a thrift store for $2.00 each.  I had to bring them home because they were in new condition.  No tears, no scuffs, no writing, and not a single page had been bent.  I really don't think the owners before had even read the books.  I was thrilled to adopt them.  If you'd rather have these books for easier handling and for eye candy ;-)......  you have to purchase each one separately on Thriftbooks

Winnie-the-Pooh by: Milne, A. A. $3.59

The House at Pooh Corner by: A. A. Milne $3.59

or you can purchase the complete set of all four books on Amazon by clicking here:
                                                                   

                                         

I just had to show this copy I got at a thrift store.  While it's not even a whole novel, it has three of the stories from one of the books.  I mainly got it because it was the first Scholastic printing from 1966.  And that was still 40 years after the book was published.  And how I wish brand new paperbacks from scholastic were still only .50 cents.

The main reason I have this last copy of a Winnie the Pooh story is because of this:

It has a two full pages of stickers of the original drawings.  All unused and all reusable to place in the book.  And guess what??????

They've been unused since 1986.  Found this gem at the thrift store for 50 cents.

Winnie the Pooh and Milne facts:

1. Winnie the Pooh was named after a real bear that Christopher Milne (A.A.'s son) enjoyed watching.  The bear's name was Winnipeg, or Winnie for short.
2. Christopher Robin was based on Milne's son, Christopher, but Christopher disliked his image in the book; saying that is was wrong of his father to use him to make novels..... (crap, if my father made a novel based on me, I'd take that as a loving gesture!!)
3. Disney now owns the rights to the Winnie franchise and has since the early 60s.  They are the ones who stuck a red shirt on Pooh
4. The quote "If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you" is actually misquoted.  Here is the real quote: 

"Pooh, promise you won’t forget about me, ever. Not even when I’m a hundred.”

Pooh thought for a little. “How old shall I be then?” 

“Ninety-nine.”

Pooh nodded.

“I promise,” he said.”

Sorry, to bust your bubble on that one.

Thomas the Tank Engine - The Complete Series!

I'm pretty sure there are thousands of moms who are with me on this one.  That their son/daughter is stuck on Thomas & Friends.  Has to have everything Thomas; the little take n play trains, the comforter, stuffed trains, the little rug that can run their trains on, and all of the shows.  Yes, I'm describing what we have of Thomas for my little Thomas lover.

Now since Thomas was based on a series of books, I of course had to find the books for my boy.  

The series is called The Railway Series by the Reverend W. Awdry.  As a child, he grew up around trains when he lived near a train yard.  He would make up stories about each train that he heard since he felt that each train had a certain emotion and personality on just the way they sounded.  He then brought his son Christopher into the picture by telling him made-up stories about trains and even making him the trains as well.  

By the way, Thomas wasn't even in the first book.  He made his first appearance in the second one.   

Now, the Railway Series has 26 books (not including the books his son Christopher wrote after his father was done with the series).  And I didn't think it was possible, nor cheap to purchase each book individually (I did look at the prices and .... ugh.....)

So here was my solution:

Here is the complete book!  All 26 books with all the original illustrations.  It is pretty thick but I'll take the thickness with the cheap cost that came with it.  

I do enjoy the stories.  I mean, if you've seen the Thomas shows, you will understand how the engines work and what their personalities are like.  Many have argued that the Railway series is full of trains who are mean, argue and take vengeance on other trains.  But I don't know what they are expecting.  They are trains!  They are bold, hard workers.  They are the hard industry.  They aren't supposed to be cute, cuddly and have flowers in their funnels.  

There are few things to consider when purchasing the book:

As an American, there are a some words in the book that wouldn't be recognizable or understandable.  Awdry was British, and thus, he wrote that way.  

Sir Topham Hatt is known only as the Fat Controller in the series.  That was his original name.  Only in America is he called Sir Topham Hatt.

The pictures in the book are about 2.5 x 3.5 inches.  They aren't small to where you can't see them but it sure would be nice if they were bigger

But none of these deterred me away from purchasing it.  And I'm glad I did.  It's a fun book for Thomas lover, though the stories are long so they are best for kids around 5-6 years old.  

There's also a beautiful picture of the island of sodor on the front and back inside covers.  Plus stories about the author and illustrator as well.

 By the way, thanks kid for giving up this book even though it was an awesome birthday present from your friend/relative.  So sad.

So where to buy:

Here's a tip on buying this book.  BUY ONLY THE HEINEMANN EDITION.  This is the British publisher which, for some unknown reason, makes this cheaper.  It must be cause the American publisher is Random House, which is a worldwide famous publisher.

I purchased my book on Amazon, but there are two listings.  Since the book was published by two different companies (one in America and the other in Britain) they are sold separately.  The one sold in America is twice or even three times the price as the one from the UK.  So that's where I purchased mine.  On Amazon, via a used book dealer in the UK.  It's the same book, so just go that route.  The cheapest at the time I purchased was overseas and I didn't mind waiting the extra week.  But now they do have some American dealers for about the same price.

You can also find this book on Abebooks from the UK for around the same price.  It's also on Thriftbooks but this is where you will have to pay around $15 since the books are mostly in the US.
I prefer Amazon, so that's the one I recommend.  You can click on the link below to purchase