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

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

Before there was Winnie-the-Pooh, there was a real bear named Winnie.

In 1914, during World War I, Captain Harry Colebourn, a Canadian veterinarian on his way to serve with cavalry units in Europe, rescued a bear cub in White River, Ontario. He named the bear Winnie, after his hometown of Winnipeg, and he took the bear to war. Harry Colebourn's real-life great-granddaughter Lindsay Mattick recounts their incredible journey, from a northern Canadian town to a convoy across the ocean to an army base in England . . . and finally to the London Zoo, where Winnie made a new friend: a boy named Christopher Robin. Gentle yet haunting illustrations by acclaimed illustrator Sophie Blackall bring the wartime era to life, and are complemented by photographs and ephemera from the Colebourn family archives. Here is the remarkable true story of the bear who inspired Winnie-the-Pooh.

Audience
picture bookschildrens
Length
short · 54 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers Shares picture books, caldecott, childrens
  2. A Sick Day for Amos McGee Shares picture books, caldecott, childrens
  3. Trombone Shorty Shares picture books, childrens, caldecott
  4. This is Not My Hat Shares picture books, childrens, caldecott

“People who read Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer
  2. Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah
  3. Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras
  4. Gingerbread for Liberty!: How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution

“If you want more of the same (history about animals), start with these.”

  1. Winnie: The True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh
  2. Miss Moon: Wise Words from a Dog Governess
  3. Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet
  4. I Love You As Big As the World

“If it was the caldecott that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
  2. Officer Buckle & Gloria
  3. Kitten's First Full Moon
  4. Grandpa Green

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest that Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood
  2. Copy Me, Copycub
  3. Begin
  4. Great Bear Lake