Finding Winnie
Who doesn’t love Winnie the Pooh? He has been delighting children for decades, and his sweet nature makes us continue to adore him. However, the story of Pooh doesn’t begin with the A. A. Milne books. This story really begins back during World War I.
Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian and soldier in training, sees a young bear cub with a trapper at a train station. He bought the cub and named her Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg. Winnie became the official mascot of Harry’s regiment and made the trip with him to England to continue his training. Winnie thrived there, but when Harry and his comrades were shipped to France, Harry realized she could not live so close to battle. In the end he safely left her at the London Zoo. A young boy, Christopher Robin, met Winnie there. He and the other children were allowed to go into her cage and pet and feed her. Christopher Robin’s father, A. A. Milne, was captivated by this gentle bear, too and began telling and writing Winnie the Pooh stories.
This story is told in the 2016 Caldecott Winner Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear written by Colebourn’s great-granddaughter Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall. It’s a book which can be enjoyed just as a fun read, but it can be used for teaching writing and research, too.
It can be difficult for young writers to find a way to show the passage of time. Mattick gives several examples in the book of time passing. “The train rolled right through dinner and over the sunset and around ten o’clock and into a nap and out the next day, until it stopped…” . What a beautiful way to say they had traveled a long time. Another example is “He leaned his head against the window watching the land scroll by…” Again this is an example of time passing on a very long journey. Mattick does it again this time with humor when she writes, “They had a very long way to travel, and they had already gone three or four feet when Winnie grew hungry.”
Mattick and Blackall show the close relationship between Colebourn and Winnie through the text and the touching illustrations. The reader sees Harry nuzzling Winnie’s nose, letting her sleep under his cot, and telling her goodbye. The text sets this same tone by letting the reader see Harry’s wish to do what’s right by Winnie. The phrase “But his heart made up his mind” appears every time Harry has to make a decision concerning his cub.
It’s important to point out to young writers that text and illustrations tell a story. Illustrations can give even more life to a story as they did in this book. They add details and give readers a sense deeper understanding of the story. Blackall’s illustrations pull the reader right into the story. Readers feel they are with the soldiers in their simple tents which cover the training field, marching in old uniforms, and riding in cars resembling Model T’s.
At the end of the book there is a great photo album which could be used to teach children about primary sources used for research. These photos belonged to Captain Colebourn. They show the journal entry the Captain wrote on the day he bought Winnie, him with Winnie, and Christopher Robin her. Also, there’s information online detailing the extensive research Mattick and Blackall did before beginning this book.
Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear would be a wonderful anchor book for teaching the writing and research which goes into creating a nonfiction book. It, also, shows how nonfiction can create different emotions just as fiction does. The reader cannot walk away from Harry leaving Winnie at the London Zoo without feeling sad, yet joy returns with the appearance of Christopher Robin and his father in part 2. As the author writes, ” Sometimes you have to let one story end so the next one can begin.”