REVIEW ONLY

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY New York Boston

For Cole.

May this story always remind you of the impact

one small, loving gesture can have.

—LM

For my father, who has always loved Bears.

—SBREVIEW ONLY

“Could you tell me a story?”asked Cole.

“It’s awfully late.” It was long past dark, and time to be asleep.

“What kind of story?”

“You know. A true story. One about a Bear.”

We cuddled up close.

“I’ll do my best,” I said.

REVIEW ONLY

A very long time ago, about a hundred years before you were

born, there was a veterinarian who lived in

Winnipeg. His name was Harry Colebourn.

“A vegetarian?” said Cole. “Bear doesn’t

like vegetables.”

“A veterinarian. It means an animal

doctor.”

“I know that!” Cole said. “That’s what

I’m going to maybe be when I’m big.”

If a horse had the hiccups or a cow had

a cough, Harry knew how to make them

feel just right. Harry’s hands were never

cold, even in Winnipeg, where winters

are so frosty that icicles grow on the insides

of your nose. That was just the kind of

doctor he was.

REVIEW ONLY

But a day came when Harry had to

say good-bye to Winnipeg. There was

a war far, far away—beyond the end of

the country and on the other side of the

ocean—and he was going to help. He

would be caring for the soldiers’ horses.

Harry rode east on a train full of other

soldiers. He leaned his head against the

window, watching the land scroll by,

wondering what it would be like to be so

far from home.

REVIEW ONLY

The train rolled right through dinner and over the sunset and around ten o’clock and

into a nap and out the next day, until it stopped at a place called White River.

Harry decided to stretch his legs.

On the train platform was a man on a bench with a baby.

“A baby?” said Cole, annoyed.

REVIEW ONLY

A baby bear. A cub.

Harry stopped. It’s not every day

that you see a bear cub at a train station.

“That Bear has lost its mother,” he

thought, “and that man must be the

trapper who got her.”

“What do trappers do?” asked Cole.

“It’s what trappers don’t do. They

don’t raise bears.”

“Raise them?”

“You know,” I said. “Love them.”

REVIEW ONLY

Harry thought for a long time. Then

he said to himself, “There is something

special about that Bear.” He felt inside

his pocket and said, “I shouldn’t.” He

paced back and forth and said, “I can’t.”

Then his heart made up his mind, and

he walked up to the trapper and said,

“I’ll give you twenty dollars for the bear.”

“Is twenty dollars a lot?” asked Cole.

“Back then?” I said. “Even more than a lot.”

REVIEW ONLY

“Captain Colebourn!” said the Colonel on the train, as the little Bear sniffed at his knees. “We are

on a journey of thousands of miles, heading into the thick of battle, and you propose to bring this

Most Dangerous Creature?”

Bear stood straight up on her hind legs as if to salute the Colonel. The Colonel stopped speaking

at once—and then, in quite a different voice, he said, “Oh, hallo.”

The men of Harry’s regiment squeezed by to have a look.

“I’ve decided to name her Winnipeg,” Harry told them, “so we’ll never be far from home.

Winnie, for short.”

REVIEW ONLY

They had a very long way to travel,

and they had already gone three or four

feet when Winnie grew hungry.

“What do bears eat?” the men

wondered.

“What don’t they eat?” said Harry.

“Vegetables!” Cole reminded me.

“Winnie ate vegetables,” I said. “She

ate everything, except onions.”

They brought her carrots and potatoes,

and apples and tomatoes, and eggs and

beans and bread. And a tin of fish, and

some slop in a dish. But Winnie was

still hungry.

“How about dessert?” said Harry,

holding up a bottle of condensed milk.

Taking the treat in her paws, Winnie lay

on her back and hummed a happy song

as she drank. The men roared.

REVIEW ONLY

Harry and Winnie gathered with soldiers from all over Canada in the green fields of Valcartier. A whole city of tents had sprung up there. One was a hospital for horses, where Harry went to work.

REVIEW ONLY

Winnie was in the army now. Harry

taught her to stand up straight and hold

her head high and turn this way and

that, just so! Soon, she was assigned

her own post.

Even the Colonel agreed that Winnie

was a Remarkable Bear. She might have

been the best navigator in the whole

army. If you hid something, could she

find it? She could! What if it was farther

away? And farther still? “Remarkable!”

he cried.

REVIEW ONLY

In the evenings, both of them were

too tired to move.

When Harry thought about Winnie

and the voyage across the ocean, his

head said, “I shouldn’t.” His head said,

“I can’t.” But his heart made up his mind.

REVIEW ONLY

Nobody had ever tried to f loat so many people and animals across the Atlantic Ocean before.

Thirty ships sailed together, carrying about 36,000 men, and about 7,500 horses…and about

one bear named Winnie.

REVIEW ONLY

When they finally arrived in England,

the regiment went to training on the

Salisbury Plain, where it rained and

rained and rained.

But Winnie didn’t seem to mind.

She was the Mascot of the Second

Canadian Infantry Brigade, and she

attended her post with vigor. One day,

Harry came running while she was

doing her exercises in the tent. “You’ll

bring the whole place down!” he said

with a laugh. She had grown.

REVIEW ONLY

It was winter when the order came:

The time had come to fight. Winnie

posed proudly with the men for pictures

to send home to their families.

Harry thought for a long time. His

head argued one way and then the other.

But his heart made up his mind.

He went to Winnie and said in a

serious way, “There’s somewhere we

need to go.” Winnie brushed the mud

off her nose and nuzzled in close. REVIEW ONLY

Harry drove all the way to the Big City.

REVIEW ONLY

“Here we are,” said Harry. “The

London Zoo.”

Harry took a deep breath. “Winnie,

this is going to be your home for a

while,” he said. She tilted her head.

“We’re shipping out to France,”

he explained. “I have to take care of

the horses at the front.”

She rested her big head against him.

“I know you want to come, but it’s

not safe.”

Winnie’s head bowed. Harry’s hands

were warm as sunshine, as usual.

“There is something you must always

remember,” Harry said. “It’s the most

important thing, really. Even if we’re

apart, I’ll always love you. You’ll always

be my Bear.”

REVIEW ONLY

“Is that the end?”

“That’s the end of Harry and

Winnie’s story,” I said.

“But I don’t want it to be over,”

said Cole.

“Sometimes,” I said, “you have

to let one story end so the next one

can begin.”

“How do you know when that

will happen?”

“You don’t,” I said. “Which is

why you should always carry on.”

REVIEW ONLY

Once upon a time, there was a little boy with a stuffed Bear.

He’d had his Bear ever since he was a baby. But somehow, the boy had never found the right

name for him: He’d tried Teddy, and Edward, and even Big Bear.

REVIEW ONLY

One day, the boy went to visit

the London Zoo with his father,

and there was a bear—a real Bear—

on the Terraces there. Right away,

the boy thought, “There is something

special about that Bear.” Her name

was Winnie.

They became true friends. The boy

was allowed to come right inside her

enclosure to play.

Once the boy had found Winnie,

he knew just what to call his stuffed

Bear. He named it Winnie-the-Pooh.

And the boy was called—

“Cole?” said Cole.

REVIEW ONLY

His name was Christopher Robin Milne.

Christopher Robin would visit Winnie

at the zoo, and then he would take his

stuffed animal on all sorts of adventures

in the wood behind his home.

His father, Alan Alexander Milne, wrote

books all about them.

Harry’s Winnie became Winnie-the-

Pooh—and there has never been a more

beloved bear.

“But what about Harry?” Cole asked.

REVIEW ONLY

When Harry visited Winnie at the

zoo, he saw how happy she was. She

was being raised. She was truly loved.

And that was all he had ever wanted,

from the moment they met at the train

station in White River.

So, after the war, Harry returned to

Winnipeg and his life as an animal doctor.

Before long, he was married and

had a son named Fred, and Fred had

a daughter named Laureen, and Laureen

had a daughter named Lindsay.

Which is me.

And then I had a son.

When I saw you, I thought, “There

is something special about this Boy.”

So I named you after your great-great-

grandfather: Captain Harry Colebourn.

I named you Cole.

REVIEW ONLY

“That’s me?” said Cole in a whisper.

“That’s you.”

“And that’s Winnie?”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s Winnie.”

“And it’s all true?”

“Sometimes the best stories are,” I said.

Cole’s eyes grew big, and he said nothing for a long time.

Then he hugged his own bear close and let out a yawn that

reached far away, and they both turned over and fell asleep.

REVIEW ONLY

Harry as a young soldier

The diary page from the day Harry

found Winnie. On August 24, 1914,

he wrote, “Bought bear $20.”

Harry kept diaries throughout

World War I. This was the

diary from 1914, the first

year of the war.

REVIEW ONLY

This picture of Winnie and Harry

inspired the statues that now

stand in Winnipeg and London.

Three soldiers with Winnie—at her post!

Harry and his fellow soldiers with their Mascot, Winnie

Winnie and Harry have what appears

to be a laugh—and a snack.

The statue in Winnipeg was unveiled

in 1992.

REVIEW ONLY

This official Animal Record Card shows that Winnie began her stay at the London Zoo on

December 9, 1914.

This photo was taken of

Winnie and Christopher

Robin in 1925 at the zoo

after they became friends.

Christopher Robin’s father,

A. A. Milne, watches them

play from above.

Text

copy

righ

t ©

201

5 by

Lin

dsay

Mat

tick

• I

llust

rati

ons

copy

righ

t ©

201

5 by

Sop

hie

Bla

ckal

l • Co

ver

art

© 2

015

by S

ophie

Bla

ckal

l •

Cove

r de

sign

by

Gail

Doo

bini

n • Co

ver

copy

righ

t ©

201

5 Hac

het

te B

ook

Grou

p, I

nc. •

All

rig

hts

res

erve

d. L

inds

ay a

nd C

ole

phot

os ©

Mic

hae

l Dav

idso

n, C

ather

ine

Far

quhar

son. S

tatu

e ph

oto

© D

avid

Ric

h. H

isto

rica

l im

ages

are

fro

m th

e Co

lebo

urn

Fam

ily

Arch

ive. A

nima

l re

cord

car

d

and

phot

o of

Chri

stop

her

Rob

in r

epri

nted

wit

h p

ermi

ssio

n of

the

Zool

ogic

al S

ocie

ty o

f Lon

don. I

f yo

u wo

uld

like

to u

se m

ater

ial

from

the

book

(oth

er t

han

for

revi

ew p

urpo

ses), p

rior

wri

tten

per

miss

ion

must

be

obta

ined

by

cont

acti

ng t

he p

ubli

sher

at

perm

issi

ons©

hbgu

sa.co

m. T

han

k y

ou

for

your

sup

port

of

the

auth

or’s

righ

ts. •

Lit

tle, B

rown

and

Com

pany

• H

achet

te B

ook

Grou

p • 12

90 A

venu

e of

the

Amer

icas

, New

Yor

k, N

Y 10

104

• Vi

sit

us at

lb

-kid

s.co

m •

Lit

tle, B

rown

and

Com

pany

is

a di

visi

on o

f Hac

het

te B

ook

Grou

p, I

nc. •

The

Lit

tle, B

rown

nam

e an

d lo

go a

re

trad

emar

ks o

f Hac

het

te B

ook

Grou

p, I

nc. • F

irst

Edi

tion

: Oct

ober

201

5 • L

ibra

ry o

f Co

ngre

ss C

atal

ogin

g-in

-Pub

lica

tion

Dat

a • M

atti

ck, L

inds

ay. •

Fin

din

g Wi

nnie

: the tr

ue st

ory

of the wo

rld’s m

ost fa

mou

s be

ar • by

Lin

dsa

y Mat

tick

; ill

ust

rate

d b

y So

phie

Bla

ckal

l.—Fir

st edit

ion.

• pa

ges cm

• IS

BN 9

78-0

-316

-324

90-8

(har

dcov

er) •

1. Co

lebo

urn,

Har

ry, 1

887-

1947

—Ju

veni

le fi

ctio

n. 2

. Wi

nnip

eg (B

ear)

—Ju

veni

le fi

ctio

n. [1

. Col

ebou

rn, H

arry

, 18

87-1

947—

Fic

tion

. 2. Wi

nnip

eg (B

ear)

—Fic

tion

. 3. Bea

rs—Fic

tion

. 4. So

ldie

rs—Fic

tion

. 5. Wi

nnie

-the-

Poo

h (F

icti

tiou

s ch

arac

ter)

—Fic

tion

. 6. M

ilne

, A.

A. (

Alan

Ale

xan

der

), 18

82-1

956—

Fic

tion

.] I

. Bla

ckal

l, S

ophie

, ill

ust

rato

r. I

I. T

itle

. • P

Z7.1

.M38

Fin

201

5 • [E

]—dc2

3 • 20

1404

1122

•

10 9

8 7

6 5

4 3

2 1

• S

C • PRIN

TED I

N C

HIN

A

Abou

t Th

is B

ook

The

illu

stra

tion

s fo

r th

is b

ook w

ere

don

e in

Chin

ese

ink a

nd w

ater

colo

r on

hot

-pre

ss p

aper

. The

text

was

set

in N

ew

Cale

don

ia, a

nd t

he

dis

play

typ

e is

han

d-l

ette

red. T

his

boo

k w

as e

dit

ed b

y Su

san

Ric

h w

ith s

tory

dir

ecti

on b

y Jo

sh

Gre

enhut

and d

esig

ned b

y Gai

l Doo

bini

n wi

th a

rt d

irec

tion

by

Pat

ti A

nn H

arri

s. T

he

prod

uct

ion

was

supe

rvis

ed b

y Eri

ka

Schwa

rtz, a

nd t

he

prod

uct

ion

edit

or w

as C

hri

stin

e Ma.

Lindsay and Cole in 2013.

We knew there was something

special about this Boy!

REVIEW ONLY