Winnie-the-Pooh

Milne wrote these stories for his son, Christopher Robin, and based the characters on the boy's stuffed toys. The book is a series of short, self-contained adventures, framed as tales told to the boy. In the first, Pooh tries to reach a honey tree by floating up on a balloon while pretending to be a small black cloud. In another, he eats so much at Rabbit's house that he gets stuck in the doorway and has to wait a week to grow thin again.

Other chapters follow Pooh and Piglet tracking mysterious footprints around a tree, setting a trap for a Heffalump, and joining an expedition to find the North Pole. Eeyore loses his tail and Pooh finds it in an unexpected place, and later Pooh and Piglet give Eeyore birthday presents that go slightly wrong but still make him happy. When a flood traps Piglet, Pooh comes to the rescue on a floating honey jar. The humor comes from the characters' muddled logic and big hearts, and Ernest H. Shepard's drawings are an essential part of the charm.

Short chapters, ideal for bedtime. About 176 pages in the Dutton hardcover, followed by The House at Pooh Corner.