HUNNY

It was a fine spring morning in the forest as he started out. Little soft clouds played happily in a blue sky, skipping from time to time in front of the sun as if they had come to put it out, and then sliding away suddenly so that the next might have his turn. Through them and between them the sun shone bravely; and a copse which had worn its firs all the year round seemed old and dowdy now beside the new green lace which the beeches had put on so prettily.

That was an exert from p.48 in "The World of Pooh" my first read of Spring break 2008.
Spring break is the perfect time to read, no homework/good weather.
I thought that the perfect thing to start my spring break reading off with would be "The World of Pooh"- all of the stories written by A. A. Milne in which Pooh and all his wonderfully imaginative friends get into mix ups and go on explorations and so on and so forth.
On Thursday I enjoyed the seasons first thoughts of spring outside in front of Panera with book in hand and breezed through the first 200 something pages, leaving only a few to savor this morning. And as I read I found myself laughing out loud at Milne's sense of wit and colorful characters that win your heart the moment you read his introduction.
I thought in this blog I would include one such funny exert that I know you will enjoy and maybe even entice you to read the book as well, for though it is a children's book, like most good children's books, it is written with adult wit in mind and thats the best kind of read...
p.88-89 of "The World of Pooh"

oh first, let me set it up...Rabbit (the know-it-all, snobby one of all the characters) has decided that he doesn't much like having Kanga and Roo around (for no real good reason, he's just not a fan of change) and so this is his plan to rid the Hundred Acre Wood of Kanga and Roo, ok.

"The best way," said Rabbit, "would be this. The best way would be to steal Baby Roo and hide him, and then when Kanga says, 'Where's Baby Roo?' we say, Aha!'"
"Aha!" said Pooh, practising. "Aha! Aha!...Of course," he went on, "we could say 'Aha!' even if we hadn't stolen Baby Roo."
"Pooh," said Rabbit kindly, "you haven't any brain."
"I know," said Pooh humbly.
"We say 'Aha!' so that Kanga knows that we know were Baby Roo is. 'Aha!' means 'We'll tell you where Baby Roo is, if you promise to go away from the Forest and never come back.' Now don't talk while I think."
Pooh went into a corner and tried saying "Aha!' in that sort of voice. Sometimes it seemed to him that it did mean what Rabbit said, and sometimes it seemed to him that it didn't. "I suppose it's just practice, " he thought. "I wonder if Kanga will have to practise too so as to understand it."

Milne was given the idea to write these stories by his wife who told him to base them off of the stuffed animals their son, Christopher Robin, owned. Milne writes two beautiful dedications in this book (as the copy i own is a combination of two books) one of which is very endearing and is what i will leave you with...

"You gave me Christopher robin, and then
You breathed new life in Pooh.
Whatever of each has left my pen
Goes homing back to you.
My book is ready, and comes to greet
The mother it longs to see--
It would be my present to you, my sweet,
If it weren't your gift to me."