A review by georgem21
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

 The Tao of Pooh is a great book that explains the philosophy of Taoism through the eyes of Winnie the Pooh characters. I really like the artistic take that Benjamin Hoff took to explain key ideas through the eyes of Winnie the Pooh characters and situations that the characters would find themselves in to explain otherwise difficult concepts. The novel starts off with the narrator and Winnie the Pooh in conversation. Since Winnie the Pooh and others are already established characters in literature there is no need to have background information about their characters and the author Benjamin Hoff uses this to jump right into topics about Taoism. While the narrator is talking to Winnie the Pooh they go back and forth on certain topics, and it can get a little confusing since explaining a philosophy like Taoism can be tricky as a whole. I do like that after the two are done conversing that they jump into hypothetical situations with other Winnie the Pooh characters to help the reader have a better understanding of the topic at hand. Especially for more visual learners like myself seeing the situations played out and explained was a great choice and helped me gain a better grasp of what exactly the ideas of Taoism that Benjamin Hoff is trying to teach in this book. I would definitely recommend this book for people who are interested in Taoism as a starter in their journey to learning more about it. The book goes over some main points about Taoism but does not fully dive into it as a whole so I would use it as more of a starting point. It is also a great book if you want to try to change the way you look at the world or how you react to experiences that happen to you. The book really opened my eyes to how I react to the world around me and gave me a better sense of how to handle things in the future.