As I took my seat with a cup in hand I was questioned by Dave, the fellow on my left, “Doesn’t that beer go against your professional code of ethics?”

When I was nine, I was limited to three very enthusiastic topics of conversation: Helen Keller, Annie Sullivan, and whales. The latter was inspired by actual encounters (my Dad was a commercial fisherman), but my interest, um, make that obsession, with the deaf and blind Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan came from regular readings of their Scholastics biographies (both by Margaret Davidson).

This is a big month for adaptation of children’s classics. Last week, David Benedictus’ Return to the Hundred Acre Wood was released, the first authorized sequel to the original A.A. Milne books from the 1920’s.