Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsey Mattick

This is the 2016 Caldecott book this year.  I love it! The author also deserves an award as well. The writing is wonderful.

The author is telling her son the tale of Winnie, the bear, who her great grandfather saved from a trapper and ended up taking her with to his army post in Europe during WWI. Quite amazing.  When he couldn't take him to the front lines, he found a place for her at the London Zoo.  Christopher Robin Milne ended up meeting Winnie at the zoo and they became friends. Shockingly, he was even allowed in the enclosure to play with Winnie.  Christopher ended up naming his stuffed bear Winnie the pooh. And of course, we know that his father wrote the stories of Winnie the Pooh based on Christopher's stuffed animals.  In this book we find out why Christopher named his stuffed bear Winnie the pooh.

I think sometimes true tales are more unique than ones you could dream up.  I love the saying, "you can't make this stuff up!"  At the end of the book, there is a photo album with pictures of the people in the book.  What a wonderful addition.  Nice to help kids see that this book was truly a nonfiction story.

I ordered the audible narration to this book and we looked at the pictures from my Kindle ebook while we listened in my media classes.   The narrator was wonderful with the voices.  I jumped at getting the audible because, frankly, I was having trouble reading this book out loud.  The voice of the storyteller and the child which is intermingled in the story was tripping me up.

I had a few minutes with one of my classes and so I started reading the first page from the Winnie-The-Pooh chapter book by A.A. Milne. I as amazed at how the author, Lindsey Mattick, lined up her writing with Milne.  Lots of lines reminded me of a Winnie the Pooh story!  I may need to read Winnie the Pooh again! My kids were surprised that this was a chapter book with black and white drawings.  They are more familiar with the Disney books and movies.

This Caldecott is a winner this for me.  I look forward to sharing this story for years to come.