Oh, Bother! Someone's Messy!

Disney's Winnie-The-Pooh's Helping Hands

by Betty G. Birney, Nancy Stevenson (Illustrator)

Roo's room is a mess--and he doesn't care! But one day his mud pies get too messy and his friends won't come over.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

From kindergarten through graduation, I attended school in Affton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Then I graduated from Webster College (now Webster University) in Webster Groves, Missouri. Of course, I majored in English and kept on writing.

After working in advertising in St. Louis, Missouri and in Chicago, Illinois, I eventually moved to Southern California. First, I worked for Disneyland (fun job!) in the advertising department. The monorail whizzed past my window all day long. Then I worked at the Disney Studio in Burbank, where I had another fun job, writing and producing television and radio commercials and theatrical trailers (previews of coming attractions) for everything from re-releases of "Cinderella" and "Fantasia" to "Tex."

When the Disney Channel was started, I became a writer and story editor for WELCOME TO POOH CORNER. Since then, I've written more than 200 episodes of animated and live-action television programs including MADELINE, DOUG, BOBBY'S WORLD, DUMBO'S CIRCUS, THE PUZZLE PLACE, CAMP CANDY, LITTLE MOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, WHERE'S WALDO, FRAGGLE ROCK and ZOOBILEE ZOO. That's right, I write cartoons! I also wrote a number of award-winning afterschool specials and many interactive CD-ROM programs, including the award-winning "Berenstain Bears on their Own," "Richard Scarry's Busiest Neighborhood Ever," and "The Crayon Factory."

A made-for-television family movie I wrote, MARY CHRISTMAS, starring John Schneider, Cynthia Gibb and Tom Bosley, aired on the PAX network in 2002. It was the highest rated movie in PAX history and has aired each Christmas season since then.

I have been fortunate enough to win a Writer's Guild of America Award and three Humanitas Prizes (as well as two other nominations). In 2002, I won a Daytime Emmy Award for MADELINE, after two previous Emmy nominations. More recently, I received the Christopher Award for FRIENDSHIP ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, many children's choice awards for THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY and was inducted into the Affton (MO) School District Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Rod Brown]

Roo's room is messy, so Kanga does the old let-him-soak-in-his-filth-till-he's-sick-of-it trick. Since this is a fantasy, Roo learns the error of his ways, and since this is a Pooh story, all the Hundred-Acre friends come over for a book-ending cleaning-up party.

I tried this with my daughter's playroom for a while, and we ended up with two-foot drifts of papers and toys against the walls and a three foot diameter circle in the middle where she could actually play.

UPDATE 6/3/2022:
I discovered today that an abridged version of this book was released in 1999 under the title Roo's Messy Room as part of the My Very First Winnie the Pooh series.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... )

[Amanda]

Roo doesn't like to clean up his toys so Kanga lets him make whatever mess he wants in his room to teach hima lesson. HIs room soon becomes so messy they can't find anything to play with so they end up at Piglet's house to play. Piglet's house is clean and organized and everything labeled. They have a great time and Piglet makes them help clean up before they leave. Roo goes home and his mess is so bad he doesn't know where to start, luckily his friends come to help him and before he knows it, his room is neat and organized too. Great to teach the importance of cleaning and keeping things organized.

[Christy Roberts]

Roo has a messy room and his mom decides to let him have it that way until he realizes how rough it is on finding things in a messy room. His friends help him get things fixed up. Really thought was cute and love me some Pooh stories.

[Beth (FebruaryFilly)]

Messy room; cleaning up

[Ashley]

I don't mind any help teaching Oliver to clean up!

[Mandy J. Hoffman]

MY REVIEW:

A messy room. A child who doesn't care. A frustrated mommy.

Sound familiar? Here is a cute and somewhat "back door" approach to talking to your child about his/her messy room. Bright colors, adorable characters, and a simple little tale explain the importance of keeping your room clean in this short children's book. Not only does Roo find out that it's more fun to have a clean room, but Piglet shows him how to have a tidy room!

This fun little book with a lesson tucked into it's pages is great for ages 3 to 6 - give or take on either side depending on siblings.

[Amy]

This book is great when teaching a child to do a chore. In the book Roo realizes on his own the importance of cleaning his room. His friends even come help him get organized.

[Marilyn]

Alissa loves the messy room.