How a Bear Became a Book

The Collaboration That Created Winnie-the-Pooh

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Henry Holt and Company

(pub. 3.31.2026)

48 pages

Ages 4-8

Author: Annette Bay Pimentel

   Illustrator: Faith Pray

Character: Winnie-the-Pooh collaborators

Overview:

" How a Bear Became a Book tells the story of how writer, illustrator, and editor came together to craft Pooh's first adventure. But deeper than that, this book introduces our youngest readers to how stories begin and where they can go. As Pooh's voice enters the text, he slowly comes to life in the art."

Tantalizing taste:

"You started with an idea.

And ideas that you think ...

become stories you tell which...

become books everyone can read."

I see I'm made of

words. But how will I

ever become a book?

That's quite a story! Let me show you ...

Alan Alexander Milne was an author. He wrote stories.

One day he had an idea and wrote down some words about a bear.

A bear?! Where?

Oh. Me!

The words lingered on the page ... waiting.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Wait!

What am I

waiting for?

Waiting for readers' eyes, of course.

For people to read you alive..."

And something more: Annette Bay Pimentel shared in In Which We Meet the Author: "I grew up with tattered paperback copies of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner (which I loved) but didn't encounter When We Were Very Young until I met my father-in-law. In August 1925, when he was five years old, he received a present. A family friend in London had mailed all the way to Oakland, California, a copy of the hottest book in the bookstore - Alan and Ernest's book of poetry... Today it sits on my bookshelf (even more bedraggled than when I first met it). The characters inside, including Mr. Edward Bear, are now delighting the fourth generation of our family."