A juvenile novel expanding on the story Lindsay Mattick and Sophie Blackall have already told in picture book form: Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear.

This version goes all in on the war aspects and includes a surprisingly high body count for a kid's book that is sure to upset anyone who thinks it's "very sad when the guy stopped drawing the deer" in Bambi.

Frankly, I prefer the shorter version. I could do without the real bear, Winnipeg, called "Winnie," now being a magical creature that can speak to all other animals in their own language because of her open heart or somesuch. Real person Harry Colebourne gets sidelined in the story frequently so Winnie can skitter off and have some more fanciful adventures with her animal friends. All the extra noodling about bored me and wasn't nearly as moving as the picture book.

(Pooh Project: Phase 2! I've managed to catalog all the shorter Pooh projects my family owns (see the list here). While I work through few remaining longer Pooh books we own, I'm missing my daily dose of Pooh, so I'm going to start seeking out some of the Pooh books I don't own – yet – from libraries IRL and online. See the reviews here.) ( )

Cleverly written from the viewpoint of the little bear, sweet, compelling, and bold enough to address some hard facts in an honest but gentle way. The illustrations are charming. I loved Winnie and her friends! ( )

This book is the true story behind the naming of Winnie the Pooh and the adventures he takes with Christopher Robin. Told in first person as a family history story about an ancestor (the veterinarian who named him) Harry Colebourn. 'Winnie's Great War' is an expansion of the picture book 'Finding Winnie' and tells of the story Harry Colebourn, and his adventures with Winnie. This chapter book also includes the perspective of Winnie, which creates an added humor to the story. ( )

The mostly true story of Winnipeg, the bear who came to London during WWI from Canada and became the inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh, told in the style of Milne. ( )