The Associated Press

Fri, Jan 9, 2009 (10:03 a.m.)

Publishers in Britain and the United States say the world's favorite "silly old bear" is back.

They say they'll publish a new book of Winnie-the-Pooh adventures on Oct. 5. "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood" is the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne's stories.

It'll be published in Britain by Egmont Publishing and in the U.S. by Penguin imprint Dutton Children's Books.

The book is written by novelist and playwright David Benedictus and illustrated by British artist Mark Burgess.

The "bear of very little brain" first appeared in 1926 in Milne's "Winnie-the-Pooh," which featured E.H. Shepard's iconic line drawings. A second book, "The House at Pooh Corner," also recounted the gentle adventures of Christopher Robin and his animal friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.