Winnie-the-Pooh Celebration Week: Day 5 – New Pooh-Related Titles Worth Exploring

You may not have heard it, but this coming Saturday, January 24th is Winnie-the-Pooh Day. And not just any Winnie-the-Pooh Day either! All over the world people are celebrating the silly old bear’s 100th anniversary since the publication of his first books. This week, we celebrate him in different ways.

For our final delve into Poohdom this week, I thought briefly about going into the fact that Pooh is now technically in the public domain. It was a thought, but I think the nicest way to end instead is by looking at two new Pooh-related releases and what they say about Pooh in the 21st century.

When Drawn & Quarterly released this Winnie-the-Pooh graphic novel in 2024 I was, admittedly, a bit wary of it. Drawn & Quarterly typically does some very adult work in the comics world, so the thought that they’d take on the silly old bear made me uncertain (see previous statement about Pooh now being in the public domain). I needn’t have worried. Travis Dandro (a native of Leicester, MA rather than Leicester, England) took a great deal of time and care to render the original tales in a new format, and nothing else. As Kirkus said so succinctly, “No public-domain tomfoolery here; this adaptation is an act of love.” School Library Journal, meanwhile, called it, “A cottagecore graphic novel for all ages that is sure to please during story time or while young readers choose to explore the Hundred Acre Wood on their own.” Whatever one cares to call it, it is very much in the same vein as the original.

The other book today was just released on January 6, 2026. Imagine, if you will, a cover that feels soft and fuzzy to the touch:

This is the 100th Anniversary Edition of Winnie-the-Pooh, put out by Aladdin books. What’s remarkable about it isn’t what it does (though the fuzzy cover is a definite plus) but rather what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t include a Forward by a famous author, for example. Such inclusions are almost de rigueur in this day and age. Then again, who on earth is our contemporary Milne? No, the book simply is… the book. No updates that I can detect. No changes. I was, admittedly, a little amused by the note on the publication page that, “The illustrations for this book were rendered in pen and ink.” That’s at least one element not in the original.

Otherwise, if you happen to be looking for a classic gift version of the book, this is the title to go for. Small. Cute. And just a little bit furry.

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