Pooh: “What day is it?”
Piglet: “It’s today, my favorite day.”
The character of Winnie-the-Pooh was inspired by a stuffed toy that Milne had bought for his son Christopher Robin in Harrods department store, and also a bear named Winnie they had viewed at London Zoo. In this post I am going to focus on the original version with illustrations by EH Shepherd. The Disney creations date from 1961.
In my third library working as a Teacher Librarian, I had a set of handmade Winnie the Pooh toys - they were made from a sewing pattern. I wish I had kept them as I am sure they are no longer in that library:
They looked a little like this:
The actual original toys currently reside the New York City Public Library. You can see baby Roo is missing but just a few weeks ago the King and Queen of England visited the US and Camilla bought a new little Roo with her. The toy was faithfully reproduced by the company who made the original set.
There is something almost impossibly moving about the fact that Queen Camilla, one of the most prominent advocates for reading in the world today, walked into the New York Public Library in late April 2026 and did something no one had managed to do for nearly ninety years: she reunited Roo with his family. The Queen's Reading Room, her beloved literary charity born quietly on Instagram during the pandemic, brought her to the NYPL's iconic Fifth Avenue branch for a historic UK-US literacy celebration, and the guest list alone was extraordinary, Dame Anna Wintour, the legendary fashion and cultural force who has shaped taste and culture for decades, and Sarah Jessica Parker, who told a reporter ahead of the event that her 'great focus' was on funding for libraries at a time when so many face hardship.
But it was the children in that Trustees Room who owned the day. They had been taught by broadcaster and author Gyles Brandreth to practice their bows and curtseys, and when the Queen arrived they erupted in a chorus of 'Hello, Your Majesty!' that filled the room with the kind of joy you cannot manufacture. Camilla read aloud to them from the Pooh books, her voice warm and unhurried, the way a grandmother reads, the way a best friend reads. And then, with breathtaking gentleness, she handed over the little Roo, handmade by Merrythought, Britain's oldest teddy bear maker, to NYPL President Dr. Anthony Marx, completing a collection that had waited since the 1930s to be whole. The Queen herself had said it best: 'Books are the best friends you can have, in good times and in bad.' On this day, in this library, that truth felt more alive than ever, and a tiny stuffed kangaroo, after nine decades away, finally came home."
Giles Brandreth (not pictured here) was at this event because he has written a new book about AA Milne:
You might find this book in your local or school library:
Winnie-the-Pooh quotes:
Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So today is my new favorite day.
As soon as I saw you I knew a grand adventure was about to happen.
Pooh: “I don’t feel very much like Pooh today.”
Piglet: “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.”
Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts.
Always wear a smile, because your smile is a reason for many others to smile!
Piglet: “What’s the first thing you say to yourself in the morning?”
Pooh:”What’s for breakfast? What do you say, Piglet?”
Piglet:”I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?”
Pooh: “It’s the same thing.”
