I didn't grow up reading Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, and have immensely enjoyed reading it to the boys. The stories are a little lengthy, but so good! When I was last in Dallas, I was talking to Queen Shenaynay, Beatrice and Fa-so-la-la about not knowing what to call things, or do I pronounce/mispronounce things? For instance, "wolery". It is obviously a misspelling of "owlery", so do you read it "wolery" or "owlery" since you know what it is really supposed to be? Fa said that you certainly must pronounce it "wolery". Now on to heffalumps and woozles. Tonight I asked Jason, "is a woozle a weasel?" He said no, it's a made up animal. Then I said that surely it wasn't, since heffalumps are elephants. He was inclined to think that they were both made up, but since the picture in the story clearly indicates that a heffalump greatly resembles an elephant, one must concede that, indeed, a heffalump is an elephant. In the case of the woozle, I consulted Gooooooooogle. Gooooooooogle directed me to Wikipedia. You can read what it has to say here. My paraphrase: a woozle is assumed to be something like a weasel. Fa and Q. Shenaynay also cleared up my inquiries of Expotitions (as in expeditions), but there are different words that pop up here and there, and I wonder, "do I explain this one, or do I just let them figure it out"? Such as when the animals are trying to figure out what Christopher Robin does in the mornings, and Eeyore is telling Rabbit and Pooh that he is, "be[coming] educated ... he instigorates ... he instigorates Knowledge." It's hilarious; so does it ruin it to tell Joel that he really means a different word? AND, how do you read this: "HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA THUTHDY." ???? It's what Owl writes on the empty honey pot that Pooh is going to give to Eeyore for his birthday. He's supposed to have written, "A Happy Birthday". Help, please!!!
p.s. you shoulda seen spell check on this post!
5 comments:
Ooh, this is a good blog, and I will be interested to see the insights that are given. Jim and I have a little different viewpoints when it comes to these things... do you let your children have an imagination and develop their creative side, or do you try and teach them what is the correct way... Is there a way to balance intelligence without sacrificing creativity?
Obviously the whole point of Winnie the Pooh is about a boy with such an imagination that his stuffed animal friends "come to life"- So I would think you let your child experience it as the author has written...
I am no expert, but can only speak from personal experience when reading to my son who adores Pooh, and we say leave it to the imagination! Say it just the way it is written with as much expression as possible. When they are old enough to understand that some of the made up words in the book sound similiar to actual words they hear in real life they will be able to make the connection, or at least ask about them if uncertain. Your nephew loves to hear all those sounds, especially like the one you posted.
Our long standing family line from Milne has been, "Woke the Piglet up!" Now why is that so funny to a four-year-old?
Read it in your best Owl or Pooh voice, and I think your boys will eventually figure it out. After all, Pooh is a bear of very little brain. And the day they come to *you* and explain the joke will be priceless! You want to wait. Trust me. They will feel so grown up to have found out on their own, and you will have made a memory. :O) Love you!
My head hurts from trying to figure it all out. I think I might skip Winnie the Pooh because when I don't know what to tell them I'll just start making stuff up and those poor kids will be even more confused than when we started.
You need to let them watch the movies along with reading the books. It will all make better sense to them and you:-D
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