The Sounds of Hundred Acre Wood

Winnie-The-Pooh, by A.A. Milne

The House at Pooh Corner

Read by Charles Kuralt

Penguin AudioBooks

Two cassettes, $16.95

Now We Are Six

When We Were Very Young

Read by Charles Kuralt

Penguin AudioBooks, One tape, $10.95

Winnie-The-Pooh Boxed Set

(Winnie-The-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, A Party For Pooh, When We Were Very Young)

Read by Alan Bennett, Richard Briers, Felicity Kendall

BBC Radio/BDD Audio, $22

Four cassettes, 5 hrs., Audio Program

Winnie-The-Pooh & When We Were Very Young

The House at Pooh Corner

& Now We Are Six

Read by Peter Dennis

Soundelux Audio, $22.95 (each)

Four cassettes, 4 hrs., unabridged

We could have a Winnie-the-Pooh convention with all the audiobook versions that have cropped up this season. All are classic renditions of the Pooh stories - particularly welcome after the recent trend that made every story into a cartoon.

It's quite hard to make distinctions among these except to say that if you'd prefer an American voice reading Pooh's adventures with Eeyore, Piglet, Roo, Owl, and Christopher Robin, try Charles Kuralt's readings. They may sound a bit like "On the Road With Pooh and Piglet," but the avuncular voice of the late Kuralt takes the perfect tone for the longer stories of Winnie-the-Pooh, and The House at Pooh Corner. His relaxed voice lets the narrative take its familiar path while keeping the whimsy fresh.

British comedian Alan Bennett sounds just a bit bored as if he's heard the stories too often - although he's quite brilliant with the conversations among Pooh, Owl, and Piglet.

Peter Dennis is the best with the poems. He's very fluid with Milne's verse and uses his superb pacing to offer beautiful readings.

Families can enjoy any of these readings, and parents will appreciate the understated British humor as they become part of the audience instead of narrators themselves.