Book Reviews: Two Pooh-ish Books

The Little Book of Pooh-isms 
Pages: 216
Publisher: Disney Press
Released: July 3, 2018
Received: Finished copy from publisher
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Goodreads 

It's hard to go wrong with Pooh, and this book is no exception. Though, it didn't exactly go right either. It's just kind of there. The book is separated into sections with themes like "Honey," and "Weather" and then each section is filled with quotes that are somewhat related to the theme. The quotes are nice enough, though a number of them did make me wonder why, of all the possible quotes, they chose to include those particular quotes. A number of them didn't stand very well on their own without any context, though taken together and especially with the nice illustrations the whole book does have that sweet, calm, whimsical feeling that Winnie the Pooh often evokes. There are also little one line comments underneath most of the quotes that add a little more depth, but still nothing profound.

There's an appendix in the back that tells you the original source material for the quotes. About 80% of the quotes come from the new movie, so it's pretty clear that this book is mostly just a cash grab on the franchise and a not-so-subtle advertisement for the new movie. I'm not sure how children would respond to the book and if they'd find it interesting. For adults looking for inspiring quotes, they're likely not going to find profound wisdom or quotes to savor and meditate on. It's mostly just a nice but forgettable book that could have been better had Disney put more effort into selecting the quotes. The book itself is pretty.
 

A Walk in the Wood by Dr. Joseph Parent & Nancy Parent
Pages: 185
Publisher: Disney
Released: July 10, 2018
Received: Finished copy from publisher
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Pooh is surprisingly well suited to mindfulness, though at times the book felt forced. The book is broken into chapters, with each chapter having two sections: a section about Pooh going through his daily activities with a mindfulness spin, and a section that gives advice on how you can follow Pooh's actions and apply mindfulness in your own life.

The Pooh parts were nice. I could easily picture Pooh going about his business and for the most part these sections were easy to become immersed in. They were calming and inspiring and the Pooh connection was used to good effect. The "real life" parts were less well done and I could have done without them entirely. They're especially jarring at times when you jump from reading the Pooh parts that feel timeless to reading the "real life" parts with advice on how to select your trail mix if you have nut allergies and other very modern things that didn't really fit in with the mindfulness theme (perhaps the author found their thoughts wandering and they need to gently bring their attention back to mindfulness).

I couldn't help but feel like this was another cash grab because mindfulness is "in" and there's a new Pooh movie coming out soon. But, it also kind of worked, so there's that. What it also did was make me appreciate the original Pooh books even more.


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