Fantasy Book 2


     Tigger Comes to the Forest by A.A. Milne is part of the Winnie the Pooh book series, written by the author for his children. In this book, the character of Tigger is introduced into the Hundred Acre Wood. Tigger shows up outside Pooh's house in the middle of the night and ends up staying for breakfast. The next day, Pooh introduces him to everyone else in the Wood (Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, etc.). 

    This book is classic children's fantasy, in more ways than one. The plot and characters are animals in a fanciful setting, doing things animals cannot typically do in real life (Galda, 2016). There is not much of a clearly defined world, other than stuffed animals are alive and carry on lives in the Hundred Acre Wood. The drawings in the book are smaller and look hand-drawn by the illustrator, Ernest H. Shepard. I would say they are representational, as they depict realistic creatures in fantasy settings (Galda, 2016). 

    This book could be used as an introduction to the other, longer Winnie the Pooh books. However, there is not much educational value to this book beyond it being fun. This book could be paired with coloring pages while it is read aloud to younger elementary children. This could be used to teach children that new friends can be exciting and fun, rather than scary. Different is not always bad, sometimes its very fun. Some classroom conversations could go as follows:

Teacher: "How many of you have been nervous about making a new friend or been afraid of something different? Pooh meets someone different in this book and ends up being friends with him."

Students: {various answers}

    Winnie the Pooh was one of my favorite books and movies as a child. I had the animated version and I watched it over and over when I was little. Something about talking stuffed animals is very appealing to children. As I said earlier, this book is not overly educational, but could be used to get kids interested in reading. 

REFERENCES:

1. Galda, L. (2016). Literature and the Child (9th ed.). Cengage Learning US. https://reader2.yuzu.com/books/9781305854987 

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