Book of Choice: Finding Winnie

Title: Finding Winnie
Author: Lindsay Mattick
Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
Publication: 2015

Findig Winnie was a Caldecott award winner and therefore a must read for me!! I found out in the "about this book section" that the illustrations are "done in Chinese ink and watercolor on hot-press paper" (Mattick). How cool right?!? The illustrations are presented so intricately with small details on anything from the wheels of the train to the fur on Winnie the bear. Sophie Blackall's illustrations are also in the Ivy and Bean series, which I love!!

Now on to the text of the book, overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought the storyline was the cutest and so heart-warming. It's about a bear that is adopted by a veterinarian that is going off to war. He names the bear Winnie and she comes to be the soldiers mascot during the tough times of war. It just so happens that this very same bear is the bear that Winnie the Pooh was inspired by. Harry, who adopted Winnie, decides to give him away to the London zoo. There Winnie, becomes friends with a boy named Christopher. Christopher's dad is the one who writes the Winnie the Pooh stories based off her son and his friend bear, Winnie.

Complicating, am I right?!? .... This end part of the story threw me for a loop and even made the story a tad confusing. I had to go back and re-read to make sure I didn't miss something. It was a little confusing because it's almost as if they are blending two stories together, one of Harry and one of Christopher. This confusion in the storyline is the only reason I would be apprehensive to use it in the classroom. However, I love the overall story so much, it's worth a little confusion to get to the main point of the story. I would just need to make sure I allow for questions and concerns regarding the comprehension of the storyline. Having read the book myself, I know my students may be a tad confused, but I could help them work out the bumps along the road in order to understand the bigger take-aways from the story as a whole.

From this book, one can understand the true meaning of friendship, why one must follow his or her heart at times and not one's head, and the beauty behind little stories that make a grim time like war, one worth remembering. A $20 purchase at a train station, lead to the lifelong friendship between a bear and his owner. How would he know, one day that bear would be the story behind the infamous "Winnie the Pooh" .... he had no idea, but he sure did listen to his heart, that hunch, that told him to do it. And because of that purchase we have stories that live on about Pooh and his friends that we can all relate to in today's world.