RETURN TO THE HUNDRED ACRE WOOD

Listeners who settle in to hear these new Winnie-the-Pooh stories will find good friends, good food (including lots of honey, of course), and good adventures. David Benedictus, who dramatized A.A. Milne’s Pooh stories for audio, succeeds admirably in staying faithful to the spirit of the originals. Jim Dale is a marvel. Without relying on any of his voices from the Harry Potter series, he nonetheless populates an entire small wood: His Rabbit gets a Scottish accent; his Piglet squeaks; his Eeyore is appropriately gloomy. Dale even sings Pooh’s “hums,” the rhyming songs he makes up. The whole is an utterly charming audio production that evokes the feeling of never-ending childhood summers. J.M.D. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2009]