Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 6 years old told me it was one of the greatest book he ever read!!

Hello. I've got to say I've read a bit more than 1,000 books. Out of every one of these, This particular one is one of the best. I read books written by Thorton W. Burgess from my tiny school library back in 2nd grade. Sure, it's been 2 years. Who cares!!! I'll never forget how much I enjoyed laying down every night with a book from this great author. My favorite was the part when Jimmy Skunk finally sprayed Reddy Fox and gave him a taste of his own medicine. Here's a bit of advice: Keep this collection in mind!

I read this book over 50 years ago and remember it fondly as one of my earliest readings. Must have made an impression to stay with me all these years.

The clever and respected, Jimmy Skunk, comes to life in this well crafted children's tale. Jimmy Skunk is slow, dresses well and is widely avoided by his neighbors due to his special bag of perfume that he carries with him provided by Mother Nature. All of these factors however don't stop his friend, Peter Rabbit, from trying (and succeeding) to pull a prank on Jimmy at his and Reddy Fox's expense. During the outcome of this trick, we learn of the stinky possibility that awaits anybody who dares to mess with Jimmy Skunk. Unfortunately, Reddy Fox learns this tragic lesson on account of Peter Rabbit's prank. However, due to the fact that Reddy is a predator who tries to catch and eat all of Jimmy Skunk's friends, Jimmy doesn't fret too much over his mistake. He just makes sure in his own mischievous and witty way that Peter Rabbit gets what's coming to him as well.

That sense of wit comes into play again when Jimmy and Unc' Billy Possum have a dispute later on in the book. Due to Jimmy's smarts, he walks clean away from Farmer Brown's boy when both he and Billy Possum are trapped in a hen house, and he leaves Billy to face the music, so to speak.

This tale is told in a very mischievously clever way that my daughter enjoyed. I hope you give the book a try.

Darien Summers, author of The Mischievous Hare, a children's book.

These series of books by Thornton Burgess were written about 100 years ago. They are delightful stories for young readers to expose them to the lives of animals. Very fanciful and not serious, they perk the interest of young readers that animals have social lives, have adventures and perils, and allow the young reader a feeling of intimacy with animals. My 9 year old daughter truly loves these books. We've found a big adventure together trying to collect most of the books. There are more than 20 of them, many long out of print. I believe this is better reading than the current popular books which are for teenage readers. Try reading these books to your 5 year old, a priceless time together for father and daughter. When she became 8 she began reading them for herself. No finer children's books for young readers.

This review applies to the edition published by Dover. Unfortunately all reviews show up under all editions, regardless of publisher.

This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. However, the prospective buyer should be informed that the illustrations in this Dover edition are NOT by the original illustrator, Harrison Cady. Instead, they are crude redrawings by another artist, Thea Kliros. Although they are better than the illustrations in the Dover titles for which artist Pat Stewart did the crude redrawings, they are not as charming as Cady's work.

Some of the other titles in this Dover series of Thornton Burgess books do have original Harrison Cady illustrations.

To get real Harrison Cady illustrations of this title, you'll have to buy a used book. There were three sets of original Harrison Cady illustrations for this title:
-- Published by Little, Brown, with 6 full-page grayscale illustrations.
-- Published by Little, Brown, with 10 full-page color illustrations.
-- Published by Grosset & Dunlap, with 14 full-page B&W line drawings, including line-drawing versions of all 6 original grayscale illustrations in the Little, Brown editions, plus many smaller line drawings.

The redrawings in this Dover edition are of the 6 grayscale Little, Brown illustrations.

On the other hand, the front cover illustration is by Cady. It's a color version of Little, Brown first edition cover. It was also on the 1964 Little, Brown edition, and on the Canadian edition, published by McClelland and Stewart.

I recommend the Grosset & Dunlap edition. Cady did them decades after he did the 6 grayscale Little, Brown illustrations, after he had grown as an artist. Even though the Grosset & Dunlap line drawings are simpler than the Little, Brown grayscale illustrations, they are more charming. On the other hand, the Little, Brown grayscale illustrations better show Cady's remarkable vision for Burgess' creatures, so if you can get both, that's ideal. But either one is better than the drawings in this Dover edition.

The Little, Brown edition with the 10 full-page color illustrations was done about the same time as the Grosset & Dunlap drawings, but it is not a well-made book, and is not as enjoyable to hold and read as the Grosset & Dunlap.