Finding Winnie

     What better place to spend a damp and dreary Saturday afternoon than the library! My daughter and I set our sights on the case of Caldecott Medal books to find the perfect book with the perfect illustrations. We made not-so-quick work of perusing the artwork until we had a healthy stack of several favorites. After reading through each and every story, we both ultimately selected the same picturebook: Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear, written by Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall.

Winner of the 2016 Caldecott Medal

     In this delightful tale, author Lindsay Mattick leads us on a journey from Canada to London and from Captain Harry Colebourn to Alan Alexander Milne to trace the roots of two very special bears. The story reaches from Colebourn’s call to arms in World War I to A.A. Milne’s visits to the London Zoo with his son, Christopher Robin, to a bedtime scene with the author and her son. For those readers who grew up with Winnie-the-Pooh as a childhood friend, this book will warm your heart as you discover the rich heritage of that silly old bear.

     The literary experience of Finding Winnie relies on the reader’s acquaintance with the works of A.A. Milne as well as the exquisite illustrations of Sophie Blackall. Blackall’s art is composed of Chinese ink and watercolors. Soft lines and a color palette of browns, yellows, greens and hints of pink creates a soft, calming effect. Her depictions of people have a folk-art feel, but she adds precision and realistic detail to emphasize the historic setting of the text and to lend credibility to the story’s authenticity. For example, the service dress of the soldiers includes the breast and hip pockets, ankle boots, belt and the five-button closure characteristic of Canadian uniforms. The illustrations also remind us of the tumultuous conflict that forms the backdrop of the story. In the twelfth opening, the double-page spread shows five ships sailing to the war in Europe with a blood red skyline contrasted with a green-gray ocean covering one third of the page. The use of red creates a sense of danger as they head to the front, and the choppy seas produce a feeling of foreboding, leaving the reader unsettled and worried about the men’s (and the bear’s) future. Blackall more often gives the background of her pictures a less focused, almost impressionistic style, to maintain the overall light and calming effect of the story.

     True to its picturebook form, the illustrations elaborate on the words of the story, sometimes providing clarification such as the image of Winnie on his high pole overlooking the aerial view of camp to show his skill at retrieving lost items. Likewise, continuous narration demonstrates the time and struggle spent on Harry’s decision to buy Winnie from the trapper.

     However, the full satisfaction of Finding Winnie is derived from its parallels to Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner. Just as Milne nests the adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh in his conversations with his son, this tale is told by the author with interjected questions and comments from her son. The front endpage features a beautiful scene of woods and a stream, suggesting the bear’s habitat, but by the end of the story, I was most convinced that this is actually the Hundred Acre Wood where Christopher Robin and his friends played. Perhaps the most moving illustrations in the story are the two close-ups of two boys and their bears. The enlarged, vertical image of Harry and Winnie, touching foreheads, conveys deep care and friendship, and it mirrors the love on Christopher Robin’s face as he stares at his teddy bear, trying to find the perfect name.

   I reached the family tree with a tremendous sense of fulfillment as the connections between the bears and the characters were revealed. I discovered tears in my own eyes as I realized that my favorite old bear was much more than just the workings of a young boy’s or his father's whimsical imagination. Mattick gives that bear life and form, reminding me that the make-believe can sometimes be real. Even as I turned through “The Album,” another masterpiece tucked away at the end of the book, I realized that the silly, thoughtful, friendly, no-brain bear could still be playing in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Mattick, L. (2015). Finding Winnie: The true story of the world's most famous bear. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.