Prompt Response – Week 12

Greetings Earthkind!

As part of this class, we are required to publish a weekly response to a prompt given by our professor. This is my sixth prompt response!

Prompt

For your prompt this week, please complete the Readers’ Advisory Matrix, found on the last page of the reading title RA Guide to Nonfiction in the Canvas files, about a non-fiction book you have read.

Response

For this response, I will be using The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. You can read the annotation for this book by clicking here.

• Where is the book on the narrative continuum?
  • High
  • There is lots of dialogue between the author and Winnie the Pooh, and he tells various Winnie the Pooh and Taoist stories.
  • An Excerpt (from page 95 in my 158-page hardback copy):
    • “Well–here’s Rabbit. ‘Hello, Rabbit. What’s new?’
    • ‘I just got back from Owl’s,’ said Rabbit, slightly out of breath.
    • ‘Oh? You were certainly gone a long time.’
    • ‘Yes, well … Owl insisted on telling me a story about his Great-Uncle Philbert.’
    • ‘Oh, that’s why.’
    • ‘But anyway–Owl said that he hasn’t seen the Uncarved Block, either, but that Roo is probably playing with it. So I stopped off at Kanga’s house, but no one was there.’
    • ‘They’re out in the Forest, practicing jumps with Tigger,’ I said.
    • ‘Oh. Well, I’d better be going then.’
    • ‘That’s all right, Rabbit, because—‘
    • Where’d he go? That’s how it is you know–no rest for the Backson.
    • Let’s put it this way: if you want to be healthy, relaxed, and contented, just watch what a Bisy Backson does and then do the opposite.”
• What is the subject of the book?
  • Religion, Taoism
  • Call Number: 299.514 HOF 1982
  • This book is a short course in concepts of Taoism, explained by stories from Winnie the Pooh.
• What type of book is it?
  • This book is like an essay, with strong narrative elements.
• Articulate Appeal
  • What is the pacing of the book?
    • This is a relatively short book, but it moves at a leisurely pace, as though we were taking a stroll through the Hundred Acre Wood.
  • Describe the characters of the book.
    • The characters include:
      • The author (who writes in first person)
      • Winnie the Pooh
      • Rabbit
      • Piglet
      • Eeyore
      • Owl
    • Most of these are characters we are familiar with (if we watched or read Winnie the Pooh growing up). We know their behaviors and attitudes, so the author doesn’t have to describe them in much detail. The conversations that happen between the characters are fictional, but the concepts of Taoism are illustrated through the discussions.
    • The really interesting part about characterization in this book is that, even though we know the characters well, we learn more about them as the book goes on (especially how each of them embody certain parts of Taoism or how they don’t embody concepts of Taoism).
  • How does the story feel?
    • The story feels leisurely, pleasant, and whimsical.
    • The characters are all sitting by the author’s desk and not much happens in that setting, but we learn quite a bit throughout the book. How? Dialogue and retelling of parts of other stories.
  • What is the intent of the author?
    • To help us learn about Taoism.
      • To show us that we can live leisurely, pleasant lives.
    • To illustrate how Winnie the Pooh and Taoism are related.
  • What is the focus of the story?
    • The focus is on the lives of the main characters and how they demonstrate Taoist concepts.
  • Does the language matter?
    • Yes.
    • The author uses language and specific terms (made up or otherwise) to demonstrate the concepts.
  • Is the setting important and well described?
    • No and no.
    • The setting is irrelevant, though it leaves room for us to imagine it how we want. I pictured the author sitting in something of a hobbit-hole surrounded by the characters at an old writing desk.
  • Are there details and, if so, what?
    • The whole book is made up of details (just not details of the setting). It takes a through details about stories that demonstrate the Taoist concept of the chapter.
  • Are there sufficient charts and other graphic materials? Are they useful and clear?
    • There are illustrations by the wonderful Ernest H. Shepard, and they allow us to enjoy the book as though it were just a regular Winnie the Pooh tale.
  • Does the book stress moments of learning, understanding, or experience?
    • I would argue it doesn’t. This book seems like one to read over and over again to really get a full understanding of what it teaches. The author doesn’t explicitly say, “THIS is what you should get from this chapter.” You either get it or you don’t, and then the author moves on. There’s at least one moment in each chapter where the author just told a story, and then the character from that story walks into the author’s room and illustrates the point again.

Why would a reader enjoy this book (rank appeal)?

1. Characterization
2. Learning/Experiencing
3. Tone

 

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Thank you for taking the time to read this response, and until next time, Happy Reading!

Nonfiction Annotation

Greetings Earthkind!

As part of this Readers’ Advisory class, I am required to read and annotate five books from five different genres.

This week, I am annotating a book from the Nonfiction genre.

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Author: Benjamin Hoff

Title: The Tao of Pooh

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publication Date: 1982

Number of Pages: 158 (I read a hardcover version from the library)

Summary: The Tao of Pooh talks about Taoism and explains its concepts through the actions and stories of Winnie the Pooh. Each chapter covers a specific topic within Taoism such as the Bisy Backson, Cottleston Pie, The Pooh Way, Nowhere and Nothing, among others. There are times where the author has fictional conversations with Winnie and the other characters from the Hundred Acre Wood to illustrate points, but other than that, he writes in first person as he explains how certain Pooh stories illustrate concepts of Taoism. He also tells us more traditional Taosit stories and discusses their concepts in terms of modern life.

Subject Headings:

• Religion
• Taoism
• Winnie the Pooh

Appeal: With its narrative of a conversation between the author and Winnie the Pooh, we get to enjoy learning about Taoism in bite-size pieces. The chapters look long, but with dialogue and illustrations, the lessons don’t drag on uselessly. Explaining any religion can be a tricky subject, but this book appeals to readers because it presents the subject in an way that’s easy to consume and understand. He relates it to our everyday lives and translates the concepts into English and then into Pooh-language. It’s a crash-course in Taoism that doesn’t feel like a crash-course in Taoism. It feels like a leisurely stroll in the Hundred Acre Wood where we happen to learn about Taoism.

3 terms that best describe this book: Whimsical, Laid-Back, Learning

2 similar books:

1. The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff
2. Buddhist Bootcamp by Timber Hawkeye

My Personal Thoughts:

 

This book has been on my reading list for a very long time, so when it came across the desk where I work, I had to read it. This point of this book is to show us (in the West) how we have become “Bisy Backsons,” which is basically a person who runs around like a chicken without a head – doing a lot, but getting nothing done. Doing things for the sake of doing things.

It reminds us that things are likely to get done when we just relax and go with the flow. We are more likely to notice things we didn’t before if we aren’t rushing from one thought to another. This book isn’t meant to make you convert to Taoism; it’s meant to show us how we’re trained to never slow down until we’re in our grave. It reminds us to enjoy small things like listening to nature.

One of the most eye-opening lessons is one under the “Bisy Backson” chapter. In it, we see how China and France have places set up where people can go in, get tea and food and relax and talk for hours. I would argue that the pub in the UK is similar. In the US, however, the author points out that we have the “Hamburger Stand” where the point is, “Quite obviously, it’s: ‘You don’t count; hurry up.'”

I quite enjoyed this book, and I believe it’s worth it to read (and even listen) again periodically as a reminder to not be a Bisy Backson.

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Thanks for taking time to read this review, and until next time, Happy Reading!