The World Needs More Pooh

That’s the opinion of the Trustees of Pooh Properties, which manages the estates of author A. A. Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard.  They have authorized a new sequel in the Pooh series.  Return to the Hundred Acre Wood has generated some controversy among Pooh purists, who argue that the original books were about growing up and moving on, and that if the creators had wanted sequels they would have generated them…

“The whole point is that the boy has to go away from his childhood, from this very idyllic pastoral world of his childhood,” she said. “This is an absolutely perfect ending, and doing anything beyond this is pointless.”

The trustees of the estate believe the sequel will be true to the original…

“The good professor and other great lovers of Pooh will have to form their own conclusions,” Brown said. “And they may say, ‘oh, it’s not quite as good, it’s not quite the same.’ I can’t help that. All I can say is we tried very hard to do something that’s not offensive, shall we say.”

Jennifer Quinn of the AP has more details at the StarTribune.  The BBC has a writeup on a new character – Lottie the Otter – created for the sequel.  And The Guardian makes note in passing of the possibility that Pooh may have had OCD.

Image credit: Wikipedia.