A "Kiddy-Lit." Digression: Or, the Power of Pooh.

It does now.

Pooh Juice:

http://www2.coca-cola.com/presscenter/nr_20020927_australia_pooh_juice_drink.html

I have said it before and I'll say it again, only Classic Pooh characters are worth having. Those Disney monstrosities are horrible, nasty travesties of what was once a beautiful thing. When I had less than 24 hours to spend in NYC last fall... I visited Pooh & Co. at the library. SOME of us have priorities.

Pooh Juice indeed. Yuck. Double-Yuck.

I am, however, an Eeyore-ite, though most of my friends (alas, those dismal few that I have) are be-Tiggered.

The sozlet got some Duplos from grandparents for Christmas, including a Duplo Pooh. (His feet fit on the Duplo nubs.) (Duplos are big Legos.) Sozlet LOVED Pooh. I mean, inseparable.

So, we always get videos from the library, and I saw a Pooh video and thought hey maybe she'd like that. She did. A LOT.

We are now in Disney Pooh central. I have Pooh juice in my pantry. She drinks it from a Pooh cup. She has a Pooh toothbrush. I am semi-permanently Owl, E.G. is semi-permanently Eeyore. (As in, "Eeyore's home from work!") She is Pooh or Piglet or Tigger, depending on mood. (It is definitely cute to be bounced by a toddler Tigger, though.)

I have a few of the real original stories and she likes that, so I'm trying to steer her towards that and away from Disney. That is, thankfully, going rather well.

Oh, I just saw about Rackham illustrations! Right here, not 3 feet away, hangs my 1906 limited edition (1/500) Rackham illustration of "The fairies have their tiffs with the birds." I adore Rackham, and this is one of my favorites, though subtle -- the snooty fairies, the disgruntled and glaring sparrows.

I bet thats worth a pretty panny.

I just checked ebay - lots of great Rackham stuff.

Very punny.

Here's my print, though the colors are much less garish, and you can see the birds' expressions much better:

http://gerdesdesign.com/rackham10.htm

Very nice, I think thats in the book I checked out - Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.

Right, it is. (That's what brought it to mind.)

that is very graphic for a kiddy lit thread, Wilso!

Later to be explored also in Anne RIce's vampire book...was it The Vampire Lestat.....where the little girl is turned and eventually wearied of her old mind and child body.

There was an excellent moom picture, Finding Neverland, which bore very little relation to reality, but it's a wonderful film. Johnny Depp plays J. M. Barrie, opposite Kate Winslet and Julie Christie. It's kind of about never growing up. Finding Neverland

But i digress . . .

I must look at that.

Please do.
Digress I mean

The real Winnie the Pooh on Salisbury Plain in December, 1914

The Canadian officer in the picture was Lt. Harry Colebourn, a veterinary surgeon seconded to the Fort Gerry Horse. He bought the bear cub from a hunter for $20 in western Ontario on a railway platform while en route to his embarkation port. He named her for his adopted home town, Winnipeg, Manitoba. They smuggled the bear cub into England, and left her at the London Zoological Garden when they went to France.

You'll be happy to know, i'm sure, that Lt. Colebourn survived the war.

What of the bear?

Oh, I have seen it. On a long haul flight I believe.

It's an amazing story...the deaths, the fate of the boys. Barrie was gifted but destructive.

Of course, the moom picture was based on actual fiction.