Now We Are Six

Rating:
Summary: Not so young any more...
Review: A.A. Milne's second collection of poems has a different tone than his first; a little sly, a tad more mature, as befits little bookworms that have graduated from "When We Were Very Young". Now Milne gives us the delightfully funny "Sneezles" (Christopher Robin had wheezles and sneezles, they bundled him into his bed), and the hilarious good girl Jane ("Well, what did they think that I went there to do? And why would I want to be bad at the zoo? And would I be likely to say if I had?") accompanied by Ernest Shepard's great pen and ink drawings (check out his picture of Jane trying to climb into the bears' cage in the zoo). Kids of all ages (and yes, that includes old coots over 30 like you and me) love reading and listening to the poems in this book. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Not so young any more...
Review: A.A. Milne's second collection of poems has a different tone than his first; a little sly, a tad more mature, as befits little bookworms that have graduated from "When We Were Very Young". Now Milne gives us the delightfully funny "Sneezles" (Christopher Robin had wheezles and sneezles, they bundled him into his bed), and the hilarious good girl Jane ("Well, what did they think that I went there to do? And why would I want to be bad at the zoo? And would I be likely to say if I had?") accompanied by Ernest Shepard's great pen and ink drawings (check out his picture of Jane trying to climb into the bears' cage in the zoo). Kids of all ages (and yes, that includes old coots over 30 like you and me) love reading and listening to the poems in this book. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Marvellous but mixed collection of poetry
Review: Everyone who has read Milne's original Pooh books knows that he can write a good hum, after all Pooh gives us several.

In this volume (and the earlier "When We Were Very Young") Milne's voice comes through more clearly, unmoderated by writing for his bear of little brain. He gives us a small volume full of poems that should surely last as well as his prose. While some of them are strongly flavoured by the time and place where he wrote them others are more universal in their subject and tone.

As you read this volume you will almost certainly come across something you recognise, if it isn't the line "James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree" that catches your memory then it might be "Just a bit of butter for the royal slice of bread." If not, then you will find many of them sticking when you have read them to a child.

I have seen editions of this volume without the illustrations by E.H. Shepard, it would seem to me a travesty to separate the two. Shepard has always been the traditional illustrator of Milne and the pen and ink drawings he made for the first edition of this book, retained in this (and most) paperback edition are marvellous - well executed and suiting the style and subject of the poems.

It is hard to overstate the joy my daughter and I have had from this volume. My mother read many of these poems to me thirty five (and more) years ago, over the past few years my daughter and I have discovered our own favourites. Now she is old enough that she reads them herself.

The poems are indeed a little sentimental, a little whimsical and seem to come from a softer, more pastoral childhood than has perhaps existed for many years. I don't see this as a problem for the poetry, after all, if we cannot recreate a gentler time for our children perhaps we can soften the one we can provide with the tiny charming tales in these poems.

I would recommend this book to anyone with a small child. I give it only four stars as the poems are mixed in quality.

Rating:
Summary: Kuralt has the most boring, monotone voice I have ever heard
Review: I grew up listening to and loving the two poetry Winnie the Pooh books. If like me, you love this poetry, DO NOT purchase these tapes! After listening to the first 15 minutes of one tape and skimming other poems in the hopes that Kuralt suddenly gained inspiration, the tapes have remained in the box unlistened to. I have tried to give them to other teachers, only to have them returned to me. Charles Kuralt is absolutely the WRONG person to read this wonderful poetry. His dry, boring, monotonous voice made me want to cry, terrified that his reading would turn kids off to Milne's incredibly beautiful and funny poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Kuralt has the most boring, monotone voice I have ever heard
Review: I grew up listening to and loving the two poetry Winnie the Pooh books. If like me, you love this poetry, DO NOT purchase these tapes! After listening to the first 15 minutes of one tape and skimming other poems in the hopes that Kuralt suddenly gained inspiration, the tapes have remained in the box unlistened to. I have tried to give them to other teachers, only to have them returned to me. Charles Kuralt is absolutely the WRONG person to read this wonderful poetry. His dry, boring, monotonous voice made me want to cry, terrified that his reading would turn kids off to Milne's incredibly beautiful and funny poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Sentimental verses very inferior to the Pooh books
Review: I spent my childhood and adolescence in sight of Ashdown Forest, England, where the Pooh books are set. I still retain a deep affection for them. But Milne's verse is something else and would long-ago have been forgotten but for the stories with which it is associated. Nobody who has seen the parody:

Hush, Hush. Nobody cares. Christopher Robin has fallen down stairs.

will ever again be able to read Milne's sentimental whimsies with a straight face. The book is only worth three stars for the beautiful illustrations by E H Shepard

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book of children's poems
Review: I'm buying this book now for my daughter. I still remember many of the poems from when I was growing up, and I hear my Mom's voice as I read them.