A Pre-Pooh A. A. Milne finds our hearts with "When We Were Very Young"

Most people are familiar with the name "A.A. Milne." The creator and author of the Winnie the Pooh stories, his early 20th Century poetry was originally written for his young son Christopher Robin Milne. Luckily, unlike the nonsensical rhymes I come up with for my boys, he wrote his down and saved them, compiling them in two non-Pooh collections: "When We Were Very Young," and "Now We Are Six."

I've read the Winnie the Pooh stories dozens of times in English and in German (don't ask), but hadn't ever gotten around to reading either of the poetry collections. I don't like poetry as a rule...but I've found an exception in "When We Were Very Young." It's a must-read for any parents with young children. You'll see your lives and theirs reflected in this 80-year old volume, and find laughter and tears in its pages.

The 44 poems are illustrated by "Pooh" illustrated Ernest H. Shepard, and the pictures and text complete each other in the best of ways.

Of the poems, some of my favorites are:

"Puppy and I" ...a little boy goes from Man to Horse to Woman to Rabbits trying to find a playmate, and everyone's too busy or too disinterested to play with him. He finally finds a puppy, and finds the perfect playmate with that puppy.

"The Four Friends" ...one of Milne's fantastic nonsense poems, the four friends are an elephant, goat, lion and snail. Great fun, and Shepard's illustrations make it even better.

"Lines and Squares" ...remember the games you'd play walking on the sidewalk? Sometimes you'd HAVE to step on the lines, sometimes avoid them. Here a little boy challenges the bears who eat the boys who step in the squares, and beats them at their own game.

"Nursery Chairs" ...when I was a pup, chairs were some of the absolute best toys, because they could be almost anything. In this poem,

"One of the chairs is South America,
One of the chairs is a ship at sea,
One is a cage for a great big lion,
And one is a chair for Me."

Each chair gets their own stanza, and this is great fun that reminded me vividly of my childhood.

It's clear that Milne spent time with Christopher Robin and at least observing his games, because every page reminded me of my own childhood and of the way my own boys spend their time. Milne's writing is light and bouncy like his subject, and these poems are made to read aloud to our children.

Along with all of the other great things about this book, we get Winnie the Pooh's first appearance, in the poem "Teddy Bear." Pooh is shown in the illustrations for at least four different poems, but this poem is mostly about him, under the name "Edward Bear." He's unmistakably proud of his tubby little tummy, and even though Piglet and Eeyore aren't around yet...it's Pooh.

My absolute favorite poem is "The Island," which ends with the lines:

"And I'd say to myself as I looked so lazily down at the sea:
There's nobody else in the world, and the world was made for me."

What a perfect expression of childhood...of that complete self-obsession and arrogance that we love so much and wish we could hold on to forever. This book is full of that. It's childlike, it's adventurous, and it's written in a voice that we know so well--if you're a fan of Winnie the Pooh, you'll enjoy this book.

You can't hold on to your children forever, but this book will remind you of them--When They Were Very Young.