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Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear


 Genre: Nonfiction/Biography

Title: Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear
Author: Lindsay Mattick 
Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
Awards: Caldecott Medal
Age Range: 4-9 Years old

Summary: This story is about how Harry Colebourn, a soldier, saved a bear from a trapper. He paid only $20 dollars for the bear that he named Winnipeg, but they called her Winnie. All the soldiers grew to love her and she was seen as a special bear. Winnie and Harry had a special bond and before he shipped out to France, Harry decided to take Winnie to the London Zoo. Though it was hard for Harry to leave Winnie, she was in the right place. Eventually, Winnie became friends with a young boy named Christopher Robin Milne. Alan Alexander Milne, Christopher's father, would watch him and Winnie play, which is where he go the inspiration to write Winnie the Pooh. 

Evaluation: I absolutely enjoyed reading this book because I grew up loving Winnie the Pooh and I never new that there was a real bear that inspired the story. Even though I enjoyed the book, I would not use it in my classroom. I do not think this is a book that students would enjoy and it does not pertain to anything that is relevant that the students need to learn. If a student really liked Winnie the Pooh, then I would read this book or show it to them. However, I do not think this is a book I would want to read to my entire class. If I were to use this book I would use it with students in grades kindergarten through 3rd grade. An activity that I would include is having the students select an animal they would want to create a story about and orally explain why they chose that animal. For younger students, I would have them draw out the story, and for older students I would have them draw a picture and write a few sentences to explain the pictures. 
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