General Vibe:
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne is a collection of stories you will likely recognize, even if you've never read this compilation. I think I have heard parts of a narrated version on tape/CD, and honestly, as I read this to my kids, I kept thinking that the version on tape was probably better. Most of A. A. Milne's work, including his collections of poetry, Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young, is written in a style of a very distinct type of humorous voice, which I find very hard to establish or connect with as a reader. Many of the poems I had to read 5 or 6 times before I felt I could hear and "perform" the pace and humor of the voice. So in general I find that his writing rewards repeated attempts at capturing the tenor and tone of the voice--and by the end I concluded that the professionals have done an excellent job with it already. You want to give each character a specific voice as well but--just because the way it is written--you almost have to rehearse the scene before you read it so you don't get the voices mixed up. Sometimes the humor connects--there were a couple hearty, surprised laughs that I got out of my kids--but often the humor was of a variety that went straight over their heads. In one story, for example, they go out to look for the North pole, and Pooh reflects that there is probably a East pole and a West pole as well.
Plots and Characters:
The plots are good--not excellent. The plots themselves are just enough to hold my kids' sustained attention. What makes these stories compelling are the characters.
