Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick

Title: Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear
Author/Illustrator: Lindsay Mattick/Sophie Blackall
Genre: Nonfiction
Major Awards: Caldecott Medal (2016)
Age: 3-6

This book is about the true story of how Winnie-the-Pooh became famous. The story starts off by a little boy who has his mother reading him a bedtime story. The story she tells them is about Harry Colebourn, he was a veterinarian and cared for horses. He went to help care for the horses who got injured during the war, and when they made a stop in White River, he noticed a bear tied to a post and this trapper had her tied there, so he paid $20 for her and she became one of their own. He named her Winniepeg, Winnie to remind him and his troops of their home in Winnipeg Canada, and so they could that they were never that far from home. They took care of her, fed her, loved her, and even played with her. During the war, Winnie traveled with them and had her own little post and job. They discovered she was an excellent finder of things and could find it no matter how far away you hid it from her, she would find it. As time went on during the war, Harry knew he couldn't keep Winnie with him much longer, since she had gotten much larger, but he let her cross the ocean with them. To them Winnie was their mascot and she attended her post with rigor. The time had finally come for them to fight, they needed to put all their training to use, and one day Harry drove to the city and knew he wouldn't be able to keep Winnie, especially since they were fixing to be moved out to France. So Harry had her taken to the zoo, where she could get all the love and attention she needed. She then goes on to tell a story about how a little bear loved his stuffed bear so much, but he never found the right name for it. One day he visited the zoo with his father and there was a real bear, he knew something was special about the bear and the father told him her name was Winnie. They became friends and he was allowed to go and play with her. He found the perfect name for his stuffed animal and named it Winnie-the-Pooh, ad the boy's name was Christopher Robin Milne and he would visit Winnie at the zoo often, and then would take his stuffed animal on all kinds of adventures. Harry's Winnie turned into Winnie-the-Pooh and a bear was never loved as much as this one. So when Harry returned from the war he got married and had a son named Fred, who then had a daughter named Laureen and Laureen had a girl named Lindsay, who was the on telling the story and she had a son named Cole, who she named after her great-great-grandfather.

This story is told from the great-great-granddaughter, Lindsay's perspective. And she's telling her son about how Winnie-the-Pooh became famous, and that he was named after his great-great- grandfather Harry Colebourn, who had a bear of his own and she was beloved by him and many others. I think students would enjoy this book, especially if they grew up with Winnie-the-Pooh, would want to know how Winnie became famous. I liked how this story was told from the great great-granddaughter's point of view, and it all came full circle as we found out the daughter named her son after him, and how he couldn't find the perfect name for his stuffed animal. We see how Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh's adventures became real and brought to life, by the writings of his father. This book would be great for students in Pre-K-1st grade. I think if I used this book in a lesson as a read aloud and as a story to read to my students.