Meet the new, slightly peculiar Winnie-the-Pooh character

Winnie the Pooh is getting a new friend.

(Image credit: SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images)

published 19 September 2016

There's now a penguin living in the Hundred Acre Woods. On Monday, to mark the 90th anniversary of A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, Penguin Young Readers announced the iconic children's book crew would be joined by a new character by the name of Penguin. The new character will debut in a special anniversary book titled The Best Bear in All the World, in the story "Winter: In Which Penguin Arrives in the Forest".

While a penguin in the forest might sound somewhat unrealistic, the story's author Brian Sibley pointed out it was no less probable than Pooh encountering some of his other, more established pals. "The thought of Pooh encountering a penguin seemed no more outlandish than his meeting a kangaroo and a tiger in a Sussex wood, so I started thinking about what might have happened if, on a rather snowy day, Penguin had found his way to Pooh Corner," Sibley said.

Sibley's tale was inspired by a photo of Pooh's creator A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin Milne, where the young boy is seen playing with a stuffed penguin doll alongside the stuffed animal bear that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh.