The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk through the Forest That Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood

Join Kathryn Aalto for a dazzling, visually-rich journey into one of the most iconic settings in children’s literature: the Hundred Acre Wood, a real place in East Sussex, England called Ashdown Forest. This is where A. A. Milne lived and set the tender adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh and his band of friends. Learn about Milne’s extraordinary childhood in the natural world and how he and illustrator E. H. Shepard became the Lennon-McCartney of children’s literature. Discover the real places that inspired the stories as well as the rare flora and fauna of the forest. Leave with a new understanding of how the Winnie-the-Pooh books are now, more than ever, field guides for the free range child, a hymn to those days of doing nothing - yet learning everything. As featured on All Things Considered!

This program is supported by a grant from the Chicago Free For All Fund at The Chicago Community Trust.