I’ve read a lot of alphabet books through the years. My favorites are
the ones in which the objects listed for each letter are not in
isolation. It’s more fun if there’s a sentence or two to go with it. Winnie the Pooh’s A to Zzzz
certainly delivers on that score. Written by Don Ferguson and
illustrated by Bill Langley and Diana Wakeman, this 1992 book
incorporates all of the major Pooh characters: Pooh, Piglet, Tigger,
Eeyore, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Christopher Robin and Disney addition
Gopher.
Each page features a full-color, full-page illustration
depicting various Hundred-Acre Wood residents in action, and set over
top of that is a four-line rhyming verse that includes the word at hand.
Just above that is an extra-big appearance of the letter, followed, in
capital letters, by “IS FOR _____”. For instance, we naturally have “H
IS FOR HONEY,” and the illustration shows Pooh, surrounded by honey
jars, enjoying a smackerel. You get the sense that you just opened the
door and caught him by surprise; the scene feels vibrant and immediate,
which is typical for this book.
Another nice aspect of the book
is that it shows us the Hundred-Acre Wood in various seasons. V is for
Vest, which fits Piglet “like an all-day hug” as the browning leaves
drift to the ground around him, while on the D page, spring is in full
bloom, to the accompaniment of trilling birds and one of my favorite
mini-poems in the book: “In spring, Pooh’s door / Is open wide / To let
the sunshine / Come inside.” The S is for Seesaw page looks pretty
summery as a worried Piglet sits suspended high in the air, seemingly
stuck since he’s so much lighter than Pooh. This is actually the only
page to include Christopher Robin, and it’s really more of a cameo, as
the verse doesn’t mention him and he’s more of a casual observer than a
participant in the activity at hand. N is for Nose gives us Kanga and
Roo in winter; though they hail from Australia, they seem to have no
trouble adjusting to freezing temperatures, and Roo looks perfectly
cheerful as he playfully tweaks his mother’s nose.
The pictures
in this book really are beautiful, filled with detail and bright colors.
Of the 26 letters, 20 of them have an illustration that includes Pooh,
though not all of the verses do. Gopher, on the other hand, only appears
on one page, like Christopher Robin, but at least he is the star
character with G is for Gopher. Most of the characters similarly are the
subjects of a page. We have P is for Piglet, focusing on Piglet’s
diminutive size; E is for Eeyore, which the gloomy donkey would be
pleased to know is one of only two two-page spreads in the book; R is
for the very busy Rabbit; T is for the bouncy Tigger; O is for Owl, who
“tells Pooh everything he knows. / And sometimes even more!”
While
every letter is very well represented in this book, I have a clear
favorite, a page that I think would make a nice poster in isolation. In
it, a gentle snowfall blankets the forest, and pine needles just barely
peek through as a smiling Pooh and Piglet pass, the bear all bundled up
in a sky blue hat and scarf, Piglet in a green scarf and white earmuffs.
They wear matching off-white boots, and a long trail of footprints is
behind them. The verse, meanwhile, seems very sage in a way, with a
subtle message about the future always being open to new and surprising
possibilities: “Our footprints always follow us / On days when it’s been
snowing. / They always show us where we’ve been, / But never where
we’re going.”
Clearly, you don’t have to be a youngster to get a
kick out of this book, but if it had been in print back when I was
getting intimately acquainted with the alphabet, I’m sure I would have
loved it then too. From start to finish, Winnie the Pooh’s A to Zzzz is one of the most enjoyable books of its kind that I have encountered.
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