Like When We Were Very Young, this is also a terrific compilation. I love it when an adult can see through a child's eyes without losing his "adult-ness". Milne's poetry is simple and beautiful, and his humour can be enjoyed by adults and children alike.Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh need no introduction. Quite a few of the poems in this book are about the duo. Milne accomplishes the extraordinary feat of seeing from the realistic and make-believe viewpoint at the same time (something which comes as second-nature to children, but we lose it as we grow up): therefore, Pooh is a live character to Christopher, even when he knows that he is nothing but a toy (the poem Us Two and The Friend).There are a lot of nonsense poems about silly grownups, quite a few of them kings and emperors, but behaving like spoilt children-a child's view of himself, maybe! (Or a rather uncomfortable thought - is it so childish? Don't dictators behave like spoilt kids on a rampage - with much deadlier results than Milne's characters produce, of course.) There are poignant poems of a child's world which so incomprehensible to adults so that they shoo him away (Come Out With Me). Also, there is the delight only a child can experience, such as a race between two raindrops (Waiting At The Window). There are even profound philosophical questions which plague a young mind (Explained).But for me, the poem which captures the quintessence of childhood in this collection is Buttercup Days, about Anne and her man(!), especially these four lines:What has she got in that little brown head?Wonderful thoughts which can never be said.What has she got in that firm little fist of hers?Somebody's thumb, and it feels like Christopher's.Anne and Christopher, among the buttercups. Pure childhood bliss!Five stars, all the way.
I don’t have a high tolerance for poetry. Most of it is boring and pretentious — which is just my way of saying that I don’t understand. There are a few poems out there (I wouldn’t even say poets) that I really enjoy. Most of them because they resonate with me on some level.A. A. Milne’s “The Knight Whose Armor Didn’t Squeak” is one of the great ones. I memorized that poem when I was little because it amused me so much and I read it over and over until I no longer had to read it.The rest of this book is quite marvelous in one specific way and that is that A. A. Milne does what he does best and that is capture the life of a small child. The poems and words and logic all pull the reader back to childhood and are even amusing on occasion because of the illogical views of a small child… that are absolutely correct.Sometimes children are prescient beyond what adults like to give them credit for. Sometimes they make assumptions about the world that just don’t make sense unless you examine things from their literal and limited knowledge.Milne captures all of that explicitly and wonderfully. The problem is that it is poetry. If this was another of his Winnie-the-Pooh adventures I would devour it wholeheartedly. As it is I raced through to get to the story about Sir Tomas Tom of Appledore (the titular knight of my favorite poem), read it a few times just for memories sake, then crawled through the rest of the poems just to finish it.This is probably not a failing of Milne or his poetry — it most likely is my own problem. Poetry rarely speaks to me and most of this book did not.
Do You like book Now We Are Six (1988)?
This is a poetry book. Everybody who has perused Milne's unique Pooh books realizes that he can compose a decent murmur, after all Pooh issues us a few. In this volume (and the prior "When We Were Extremely Youthful") Milne's voice delivers the goods all the more plainly, unmoderated by composing for his bear of little cerebrum. He issues us a little volume brimming with lyrics that ought to unquestionably last and in addition his writing. While some of them are unequivocally enhanced when and spot where he kept in touch with them others are more widespread in their subject and tone. As you read this volume you will in all likelihood run over something you perceive, in the event that it isn't the line "James Morrison Weatherby George Dupree" that gets your memory then it may be "A tad of margarine for the illustrious cut of bread." If not, then you will discover a large portion of them staying when you have perused them to a tyke.
—Nikole Rettman
If you're like me, you'll remember this book being read to you as a child. And then you'll have the even greater pleasure of never forgetting who gave it to YOUR OWN child. (Thank you, Cricket!)Walking the orchards with my dogs as a girl, carrying my lunch in a bandana tied to a stick slung over my shoulder, I read it aloud to the clouds overhead. I was never very good at memorizing poems, but if I was, it would be these.Thirty-five years later, with long dark nights before us, working on a difficult screenplay, we read it aloud at bedtime by firelight to our droopy-eyed first graders.When did this book of addictive rhyming verse first come into your hands? If now for the first time, I predict there's a lifetime of enjoyment ahead of you, wee ones or none.
—Suzanne Stroh
This book stars a collection of poems utilizing familiar characters such as Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin. With short and sweet poems along with the soft illustrations, these poems demonstrate mini stories that children can easily understand and relate to. Merged review:Milne's collections of poems in this work, uses characters that many children are familiar with. With the appearance of Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh, and Piglet, children wi be more engaged is these poems. Milne illustrates the importance of beat and measure in poetic literature as well as rhyme. These short and sweet poems will teach students variations of poetic literature.
—Michelle Henry
