Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
Age group: 3-7 y/o
Awards: Caldecott Award
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary
Finding Winnie, is a book about Winnie the bear and the true story behind Winnie. The book starts off with a child asking his mother to tell him a story. The mother proceeds to tell him a true story about a bear since that is what he asked for. The story is about Winnie and Harry a veterinarian who goes to help during war. Harry gets on a train to head to battle when they stop at a train station. At the train station he sees a bear and proceeds to buy the bear for $20. Harry names her Winnie and she becomes the mascot of the soldiers. There came a day where Harry just knew he could not take Winnie, so he took her to the London zoo and left her there. Then the mother continues with another story about a boy named Christopher Robin. Christopher had a stuffed bear that he could not name, one day while at the zoo he saw Winnie and knew there was something special about her. Winnie and Christopher became good friends so much so that they let him play with her in her enclosure. Then he found the perfect name for his bear, Winnie-the-Pooh. His dad Alan Milne wrote books about them, and when Harry finally returned he saw how happy Winnie was so he returned home. At home he had a family and the mother telling the story was a descendant from him. The story ends with the cole going to sleep.
Evaluation
The book is really great and I really enjoyed reading it. I did not know that Winnie-the-Pooh was based on a true story, this is news to me. It is crazy to think that a solider actually bought a bear for $20, and that she became quite famous through some books written by the father of a boy who played with her. I would use the book in class, because I like that it gives factual information and that at the end it shows real evidence about the events. One way I would use the book in class, is by using it to teach the kids that Winnie-the-Pooh is based on actual events. I would also use book to get the students to do a family tree since towards the end of the book they show a family tree of Harry. The book can be tied to a social studies unit about the war that Harry was part of. The illustrations were really good and they add to the text, the scenes illustrated are just beautiful. This book really surprised me and taught me something new, I would recommend it to friends and family.
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