Winnie-the-Pooh at the Palace
Jeanne Willis and Mark Burgess
Macmillan Children’s Books

Jeanne Willis’s carefully crafted rhyming text, based on the rhyme of A.A.Milne’s Buckingham Palace poem, tells what happens when Christopher Robin and Pooh embark on an excursion, destination that same palace.

When they depart the train it’s pouring with rain, soaking the sentries and prompting Pooh Bear’s comment, “That must be why they keep changing the guard.” But then the rain turns to snow and they ponder the possibility of gaining entrance to the palace. However the royal butler sends them away telling the two would-be visitors that the King is busy with ‘Royal Affairs’.

Instead Christopher Robin and Pooh Bear embark on a snowball fight, once the Bear’s misunderstanding is cleared up. Before very long though, the snow worsens and as tea is contemplated, who should appear with a sledge? It’s Piglet. Christopher Robin just happens to have some string in his pocket and soon, holding tight, the three whizz off through the ever thickening snow heading straight towards a frozen lake. As they hit the bank the sleigh-riders tumble off.

But where is Pooh Bear? Piglet spies a pair of feet protruding from a snow-pile and out comes the Bear, a crown atop his head. Suddenly they have the perfect reason to return to the palace. Will they gain admission this time I wonder and will Pooh Bear finally have his favourite food?

Despite the weather conditions, Jeanne Willis’ story has all the warmth of the original books as well as the gentle humour. Mark Burgess too, shows respect to Shepard’s original style in his watercolour illustrations.