Winnie the Pooh: Pooh's Secret Garden Read online

  Copywright © 2013 by Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press,

  an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

  any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by

  any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

  For information, address Disney Press, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011-5690.

  Based on the “Winnie the Pooh” works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard.

  ISBN 978-1-4231-5365-8

  For more Disney Press fun, visit www.disneybooks.com

  Written by

  Catherine Hapka

  Illustrated by the

  Disney Storybook Artists

  one sunny spring morning, Winnie the Pooh

  woke up with a rumbly in his tumbly.

  “Oh, bother,” he said. “I seem to

  be all out of honey.

  Now what

  is a

  hungry

  bear

  to do?”

  Think, think, think...

  Pooh was a

  bear of very little brain, but with his tummy’s

  help, he soon came up with an idea. He wandered through

  the Hundred-Acre Wood to a tidy house beside a tidy garden.

  Then he knocked on the tidy door and Rabbit answered. He

  was just about to do some gardening!

  “Gardening looks like very hard work, Rabbit,” Pooh

  said after a while. “Are you sure it’s not time to stop for

  a small smackerel of honey?”

  “Quite sure, Pooh,” Rabbit replied. “Would you

  mind handing me that watering can?”

  “Not at all, Rabbit,” said Pooh.

  When he picked up the watering

  can, several buzzing bees flew out

  from underneath.

  “There are bees in your garden, Rabbit!” Pooh exclaimed.

  “It wouldn’t be much of a garden without ’em,” Rabbit said.

  “Plants need bees’ help to turn their flowers into vegetables.”

  “I wouldn’t know much about that,” Pooh said.

  “All I know is that where there are bees, there’s sure to be

  honey,” Pooh continued.

  He followed one of the bees, hoping to find some honey.

  All he found was the bee sipping nectar from a flower.

  “Yes,” Rabbit said. “Bees need flowers to make honey.”

  “They do?” Pooh squinted at the bees.

  “Of course they do. It’s no secret, Pooh.”

  “I see,” Pooh said. “If you’ll excuse me, Rabbit, I have

  some very important thinking to do.”

  He hurried out of Rabbit’s garden and through the Wood.

  Pooh was thinking so hard that he nearly walked straight into

  a cloud of dust. He waved his arms to clear the air and found

  Piglet! He was doing some spring cleaning.

  “You’re looking thoughtful today, Pooh,”

  Piglet said.

  “I’ve just learned that bees need gardens to

  make honey.” Pooh leaned closer. “And I heard

  it was a secret.”

  “So you’re going to plant a secret garden?”

  Piglet whispered.

  Pooh nodded. “Shall we search for a secret spot to plant it?”

  The two friends began searching for spots. . . .

  But they found stripes instead.

  “What’re you two explorigatin'?” Tigger asked.

  Pooh told Tigger about his secret garden. “All we need is

  the perfect spot,” he finished.

  “Well, you found it!” Tigger exclaimed. He bounced up.

  “It’s just right,” Pooh said. “Now I suppose I’d better . . . er,

  that is, it must be time to . . . Oh, bother.” He scratched his

  head. “What exactly is it that I’m supposed to do now?”

  Piglet and Tigger had no more idea than Pooh did.

  So all three of them went in search of someone who was likely

  to know all there was to know about secret gardens and most

  everything else, too. The friends went to see Owl!

  “Do you know how to go about planting a secret garden,

  Owl?” Pooh asked hopefully.

  “Certainly,” Owl said. “My great-aunt Eunice used to

  mention such matters quite frequently. In any case, I’m sure

  I have something here that will tell us exactly what to do.”

  He led the way to his bookshelves and pulled out a large

  volume. “Is that a book about secret gardens?” Piglet asked.

  “Precisely,” Owl said. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”

  “Of course, this is a cookbook, not a book on gardening,”

  said Owl with a ruffle of his feathers. “What we need are seeds.”

  “Let’s go borrow some from Ol’ Long Ears!” Tigger said.

  They all went to Rabbit’s house. “What do you need with

  seeds?” Rabbit asked when he heard what they wanted.

  “It’s a secret,” Pooh said. “I suppose we could tell you if—”

  “Here,” Rabbit said. “Just take the seeds.”

  The friends returned to the site of Pooh’s secret garden.

  Owl supervised while the others got started.

  Pooh didn’t know much about planting seeds. But

  following Owl’s instructions, he dug up a patch of dirt and

  dropped several seeds into the hole.

  Pooh and his friends were still planting seeds when Kanga

  happened by. “Oh, my,” she said. “You all seem to be working

  very hard. Let me bring you something to drink!”

  She soon returned with a pitcher of lemonade. “Thank you,

  Mrs. Kanga,” Piglet said politely. “The lemonade is delicious.”

  “It sure is,” Tigger agreed. “But what we really need is

  someone to help with all this diggification.”

  Kanga smiled. “Roo and I might be able to help with that,

  too,” she said.

  With help from Piglet, Tigger,

  Owl, Kanga, and Roo, Pooh soon

  had his secret garden planted.

  “Now we need to wait for the plants to grow,” Owl said.

  Pooh smiled. “And then I’ll have all the honey I can eat!”

  He patted his tummy to tell it to be patient, and then they

  waited. And waited. And waited some more.

  Weeks passed. The plants grew like weeds, and bees started

  buzzing around the flowers. But there was no sign of honey

  anywhere! “Where could the honey be?” Pooh wondered

  aloud. He lifted a leaf, searching for any sign of

  tasty golden honey, but found a tomato instead.

  It wasn’t honey, but it still looked delicious!

  “Your secret garden was a delicious idea, Pooh,” Piglet said.

  “Yes, it was.” Pooh sighed. “It would be even tastier if it

  would just grow some honey.”

  Just then, Roo arrived with Rabbit. “I told Rabbit about

  your garden,” he said.

  Pooh nodded. “That’s fine, since Rabbit is the one who

  told me about the secret that makes gardens grow honey.”

  “If only I knew the secret of where bees hide it,” Pooh added.


  Rabbit looked confused. “There’s no secret to that. All you

  have to do is follow the bees to their hive.”

  “Look, there goes a bee now!” Roo exclaimed.

  They watched the bee until it flew into a stump.

  Pooh pulled back some loose bark and found honey! It seems

  the bees in Pooh’s secret garden had a secret of their own!

  After that, the honey wasn’t a secret anymore, and

  neither was the garden. Pooh’s friends stayed busy

  picking tasty vegetables, the bees stayed buzzy sipping

  nectar from the flowers, and Pooh stayed happy and

  rather sticky collecting all the honey he could eat.

  Pooh’s Secret Garden

  Pooh just discovered that the secret to a fine garden is busy

  bees. And the secret to a hive full of honey is a fine garden! Being

  a very hungry bear, he decides to plant a garden of his own. Will

  Pooh’s secret garden turn out the way he and his friends expect?

 

 

  Disney Book Group, Winnie the Pooh: Pooh's Secret Garden

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