Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is a Winnie-the-Pooh novel published on 5 October 2009. Written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess, it was the first such book since 1928 and introduced the character Lottie the Otter.
In the mid-1990s, after completing an audio adaptation of A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories, Benedictus wrote two Pooh short stories of his own and submitted them to the trustees of the Milne estate. The trustees replied that they were unable to publish the stories because "Walt Disney owned all the rights." However, ten years later, Benedictus was contacted by the trustees, who explained that "the sequel rights had reverted to them" and asked Benedictus to make changes to one of the short stories and to submit some more. This collection of stories was published as Return to the Hundred Acre Wood.Return to The Hundred Acre Woods: writing the Winnie-the-Pooh sequel (by David Benedictus), Daily Telegraph, September 30, 2009
Chapters In Which Christopher Robin Returns In Which Owl Does a Crossword and a Spelling Bee Is Held In Which Rabbit Organizes Almost Everything In Which It Stops Raining for Ever and Something Slinky Comes Out of the River In Which Pooh Goes in Search of Honey In Which Owl Becomes an Author and Then Unbecomes One In Which Lottie Starts an Academy and Everybody Learns Something In Which We Are Introduced to the Game of Cricket In Which Tigger Dreams of Africa In Which a Harvest Festival Is Held in the Forest and Christopher Robin Springs a Surprise
Lottie the Otter Lottie is a new character in Return to the Hundred Acre Wood.
Lottie is said to be a "feisty" character who is also said to be good at cricket and insists on proper etiquette. According to Benedictus, "Lottie the Otter truly embodies Winnie-the-Pooh's values of friendship and adventure seen throughout Milne's work, thus making the perfect companion for everyone's favourite bear."
References
External links After 80 years, Pooh returns to Hundred Acre Woods in sequel Extract and sample illustration Publishers Weekly review