There’s A New Winnie The Pooh Character & He’s Adorable

It's been a big year for the Winnie the Pooh characters. This summer, the original stuffed animals the literary characters are based upon (who reside in the New York Public Library) got a makeover. And in the spring, they starred in a new book about Queen Elizabeth II for her 90th birthday. The Queen wasn't the only one to turn 90 this year. The Winnie the Pooh books themselves turn 90 in October. To celebrate, author Brian Sibley gave the series a new character, and like most of the others, he has a name that reflects his species: Penguin. Penguin also has something else in common with the original animals: He was inspired by the original author A.A. Milne's son Christopher Robin. In an old photograph that inspired Sibley, Christopher and his father are playing with the original Winnie the Pooh doll and a penguin. The new character will be featured in the story "Winter: In Which Penguin Arrives in the Forest" in The Best Bear in All the World, a new collection of stories that comes out October 6. People are looking forward to the addition, though they're a bit caught off-guard.

What Sibley loves about the Winnie the Pooh stories is "their ability to work on two different levels," he told The Guardian. "The child listener to the story always understands what is happening just before Pooh and the others do; while the adult reading to the child engages by recognizing that, under their fur and feathers, the characters are just like people we know among our family, friends and colleagues.” We're excited to welcome another friend into the group.